Saving Chandra After A Solar Eclipse
A handy guide to the science from this year's astronomical main course event and what we can do with the space-mentum by saving the Joe Biden of space telescopes!
Space hype is real, especially when a solar eclipse comes to town. On April 8, some parts of Mexico, the US, and Canada will witness the once-in-a-lifetime event. If anyone misses it, the next time an eclipse happens over North America will be in August 23, 2044.
A total solar eclipse is when the Moon’s shadow completely blocks the Sun, also named the path of totality. In those brief moments, lucky observers can capture a glimpse of the star’s corona (the atmosphere of the Sun) which is usually blocked by the strong radiating light. Viewers are advised not to look at the eclipse directly because the Sun’s light before and after the eclipse could damage the eyes, and many recommend special solar eclipse sunglasses or other forms of viewing devices if the observers want to look up into the sky.
Fun fact: The reason we don’t get solar eclipses every month is because the Moon’s orbit is tilted in a slight angle, so it leads to a solar eclipse being a rare event that happens every 18 months in some parts of the world.
It goes without saying that the big event has attracted much hype. Science and astronomy publications have been pushing front-page coverage in their magazines and websites, the news media has followed suit with their collage of recommendation articles and fun human interest stories surrounding the beneficators of the eclipse, while many companies are milking the once-in-a-lifetime event for commercial benefits, including Delta which planned an eclipse event that allows flight passengers to see the eclipse in the air.
Case in point from a journalistic standpoint, How It Works and Astronomy Magazine have published cover stories featuring the solar eclipse; Scientific American published a video story of the scientists and pilots onboard WB58F aircrafts in preperration for the eclipse, in which they will be observing the sun’s corona; Axios reported Airbnb prices in the path of totality have soared compared to their counterparts which do not get to see the eclipse; while the Washington Post has gone all in with its eclipse reporting, from a story of how scientists have geared up and entered small towns in the path of totality for data collection to the story that a group of inmates in New York sued the state over its plan to lock down prisons during the solar eclipse. And don’t get me started on the milktoast articles educating the public on what the hell is a solar eclipse.
Thanks to space-mania, a lot of astronomy news has gotten attention, especially related to the Moon as NASA announced the new lunar vehicles that will be used by astronauts in the Artemis missions, while the Biden administration tasked scientists working at the organization to set a lunar-centric time reference system to aid missions.
Admist the barrage of space news coming into the spotlight, including the adorably delightful news that Arizona has named Pluto as the the state’s official planet, there is one bit of space news that deserves more attention, and it is in relation to a very old but hardworking telescope.
During the 1990s, NASA has launched a series of space telescopes into orbit around Earth to learn more about the universe without the pesky influence of the planet’s atmosphere, they were named the "Great Observatories." Until now, there are only two Great Observatories still in use today, one is the famous Hubble Space telescope, which provided a great deal of scientific contributions and was the first time fixing a mirror costs billions of dollars. The other telescope is the Chandra X-Ray Telescope.
In NASA’s overview of the telescope, the organization introduced it thusly.
The Chandra X-ray Observatory is part of NASA’s fleet of “Great Observatories” along with the Hubble Space Telescope, the Spitizer Space Telescope and the now deorbited Compton Gamma Ray Observatory. Chandra allows scientists from around the world to obtain X-ray images of exotic environments to help understand the structure and evolution of the universe.
The Chandra X-ray Observatory, which was launched by Space Shuttle Columbia in 1999, can better define the hot, turbulent regions of space. This increased clarity can help scientists answer fundamental questions about the origin, evolution, and destiny of the universe.
Ever since it was on use, the Chandra telescope has provided priceless information on how the universe works. Among its list of accomplishments, the telescope’s observation of galaxy clusters were the first to reveal that supermassive black holes create sound waves that propagate through the universe, provided revolutionary advancements in our understanding of the life and death of stars, revealed the first direct observation of the separation between normal and dark matter with the photo of the “bullet cluster,” provided observational data on dark energy, helped scientists learn more about galaxy formation, all on top of the gorgeous photos.
Unforutnately, all of the progress might be coming to an end if things don’t change. In the Fiscal Year 2025 President’s Budget request, NASA faces a 2% cut in its budget compared to the 2024 budget thanks to a spending cap being put on place in 2023 as a compromise to prevent the government from being shut down by certain GOP lunatics. It is called by the sexy name of H.R. 3746 (the Debt Ceiling agreement of 2023), which places strong caps on non-defense discretionary spending. Given NASA is a part of the US government, politicians can play a role in controlling how money is spent, including on science projects.
This may all sound extremely dull (if you don’t think anything before is boring already), but because of the budget cuts, NASA has unwillingly cut Chandra’s operational budget substantively, with the announcement made at March 11 this year that a premature cancellation of Chandra’s mission is proposed which is painful for NASA’s leadership and not something NASA wanted to do at all.
Plus, Chandra is a healthy telescope with a good ten years of operating time left, it still has abundant remaining fuel and its efficiency is high and stable. So a long-running and productive telescope is threatened with expulsion and banishment to its potential demise in its field simply for being too old and those who are calling for it is reluctant to do so but claims they have to do it because of outside pressure, it really is the Joe Biden of space telescopes.
Just to give you a sense of the gravity of the situation, astronomers have called the potential end of Chandra as “extinction-level event” for X-ray astronomy in the US and potentially the world. Quoting from Saving Chandra, a website set up by scientists who are advocating for the continuation of the telescope.
If the Chandra team is largely laid off in the coming year, and when those talented team members leave, NASA loses memory and knowledge that might not be replaceable, particularly after a years-long gap. When investments in X-ray astronomy dry up, dying teams can’t make progress on future mission concepts, and so technological debt mounts as capability to repay it wanes. The price of a “re-start” once funding is finally available grows with time, and at some point becomes infeasible or reverts to a “start from scratch” state. We move backward on technologies we’ve been investing in for years. This is a waste of money and ensures years of lost progress, all but guaranteeing that we will surrender leadership in these critical technologies.
Because of this, enabling technologies for future mission concepts languish and “collect dust” at low technology readiness level (TRL) for many years. This dooms concepts that rely on those technologies, forcing them to present fundamentally low-TRL design reference missions to gate reviews, including TMCO panels for MIDEX AOs and, yes, Decadal surveys (e.g. Astro2030). This makes them costlier, riskier, and therefore less likely to receive high prioritization, which fuels the feedback loop.
These two forces conspire to create a receding and potentially unreachable horizon for future multi-scale facilities, which causes community atrophy at all levels. Why train students in a collapsing field? Why should industry co-invest in these technologies when APD shows no serious intent in funding or flying them? Why should e.g. decadal surveys recommend future X-ray missions when there is a diminishing underlying community constituency? This is the “final phase” of the feedback loop. It does not take many full cycles of that loop to almost destroy a field.
If you want to do something to help Chandra from its potential early end, the Saving Chandra website has provided more information and methods of action to save the telescope. As everyone enjoys the upcoming solar eclipse, why don’t everyone take the time from the remaining hype to save a telescope, and a scientific field?
In the meantime, here are some of the most gorgeous photos of the universe taken by the Chandra telescope, which reminds you just how worthy the space probe is.