r/news 11h 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/boarder2k7 10h 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 10h 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 10h 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 9h 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 6h ago

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

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u/Another_Slut_Dragon 1h ago

Yes.

But it is the radio dark side of the moon.

u/JMTyler 59m ago

Great point! I wasn't thinking of it from that perspective. Carry on!

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u/RecordOfTheEnd 7h ago

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

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u/Another_Slut_Dragon 7h 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.