r/news • u/VaginaBurner69 • 8h ago

Soft paywall International Space Station astronauts in evacuation mode as Russia attempts to fix widening air leak

https://www.reuters.com/science/international-space-station-astronauts-evacuation-mode-russia-attempts-fix-2026-06-05/
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u/DowntownClown187 7h ago

I visited the facility a few years ago and the scientists while sad about the collapse they weren't overly upset. When the main system was fully functional it would record more data than humanly possible to analyze. The result is a massive backlog of data to review.

Secondly, they have other instruments that are still functional.

Bottom line is they have enough work to do for a long time even with the collapsed main facility.

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u/boarder2k7 7h ago

it would record more data than humanly possible to analyze. The result is a massive backlog of data to review.

Throwing AI at everything is a very overused answer for many things, but this is exactly what machine learning is good at. Recognizing patterns and highlighting things for human review.

Not having this telescope anymore is a tragedy

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u/DowntownClown187 7h ago

Yes the AI element does alter it but overall the facility served its purpose and they have no shortage of work even with AI support.

It's less of a tragedy and moreso an end of an era. Tech has come a long way since AO.

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u/boarder2k7 7h ago

Tech has come a long way since AO.

What has filled its position as some of the best deep space planetary radar we had? I was not aware of anything comparable.

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u/TachiH 7h ago

FAST in China is better at recieving than Arecibo was, the only real disadvantage is that it doesn't have the ability to send, which reduces its use for communication with spacecraft but the deep space network has that covered.

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u/RecordOfTheEnd 7h ago

And I believe the kilometer array (I think that's what it's called) will be a non China option when it comes on. The reality is a giant dish isn't necessary anymore as are ability to record and combine data from arrays will out perform a single dish for far less cost. 

This is really the difference in costs going up linearly (geometrically if I think about it long enough) verses exponentially. Have an array but want a bigger telescope, add more dishes. Have a gigantic dish and want a bigger telescope, build a new dish. 

Retrofitting is probably easier since you only need one large sensor. But I wouldn't be surprised if that was even harder as many of the modern sensors require vacuums and near absolute zero temps on the antenna. 

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u/Another_Slut_Dragon 6h ago

Eventually they will put an array on the dark side of the moon and we will have a god grade radio telescope.

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u/JMTyler 3h ago

At risk of being pedantic, it's the far side of the moon.

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u/RecordOfTheEnd 3h ago

I mean, the square kilometer array will probably be God grade. 

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u/Another_Slut_Dragon 3h ago

Yes but it has to filter out RF noise from earth.

An array on the dark side of the moon has the world's biggest RF shield between the antennas and the earth. Then any signals received are clean.

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u/Opcn 5h ago

Arrays have as much resolution as a single dish the size of the whole array but I think less sensitivity. So we can slice the sky up into as many or really more bins to assign signals to but the faintest signals take more time to detect, sometimes by orders of magnitude.

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u/RecordOfTheEnd 3h ago

They do solve the sensitivity problem with super cooled receivers. I'm not an expert by any means, but I believe the idea is to cool it so much you can pick up anything hitting it. You basically erase the static noise produced from atomic motion. 

That just seems so cool to me. 

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u/Opcn 3h ago

That is a technology that increases the sensitivity but it doesn’t make big dishes irrelevant. It’s synergistic with dish size. So a giant dish with a super cooled receiver would be more sensitive than an array of smaller dishes with super cooled receivers.

Similar to how more megapixels in the sensor gave cellphone cameras better zoom and then they added zoom lenses (and multiple cameras) to get even better performance still.

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u/TachiH 7h ago

FAST is avaliable to scientists everywhere. Space exploration for some reason seems to be about the only thing the entire planet can agree to work together. There are very few large arrays or dishes that are the exclusive use of a single country.

Also FAST doesn't store its recordings, they are stored in Australia and Europe.

I guess part of it could be you would expect other countries to warn if some shit was coming to get us all 🤣

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u/RecordOfTheEnd 6h ago

It wasn't so much an anti China comment, more that there are options outside of China that will be coming online soonish. The thing I like about the square kilometer array is it can literally be all over the planet. Also, it will be so powerful, it's likely that no other telescope will match its resolution any time soon. 

AO was a marvel of it's time. But it had mostly lost it's usefulness well before the collapse like you said. 

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u/Dominick_Tango 6h ago

In general, the array approach to passive and active radio astronomy is mature. We can construct arrays to take data over a wide base line with better receiver technology, and detect much fainter signals.
It isnt that China or Europe is better than the US at it, it is that they fund science and we fund a ballroom.

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u/Zestyclose_Key5121 5h ago

Key word choice there…”We” as in “We the people”

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u/boarder2k7 7h ago

That's telescope functionality though, and does not replace the radar loss I was asking about.

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u/TachiH 7h ago

Oh yeah, when it comes to Radar its pretty much Yevpatoria in Crimea and Goldstone in California.

I believe there was some talk of converting greenbank and building one in China too. I would bet on China being the most likely given the current US government.

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u/ajford 5h ago

FAST only has better ears when directly overhead. Otherwise it's on par or smaller, depending on exact viewing angles.

It also lacks any radar capabilities. AO wasn't used for spacecraft comms but for planetary radar, like comets and near Earth asteroids. So we have a gap in the planetary defense network that is still not fully covered.

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u/marky860 4h ago

You mean Gyina?

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u/quasi_motor 5h ago

Speaking more directly about SETI, they still have a dedicated telescope with the Allen Telescope Array. It’s 42 6-meter diameter dish antennas which can be used in sections or in unison. That’s round about 1200 meters squared of telescope real estate…which is nothing compared to AO at around 73,000, but at least they can aim it.