Why NASA's SOFIA Telescope On A Plane is "Perfectly Balanced"

Channel:
United States Scott Manley
Subscribers:
1,810,000
Published on ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNjHvbqYkB0


Duration: 13:05
225,938 views
9,996

The Stratospheric Observatory For Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) is a marvel of modern engineering, a 2.5 Meter Infrared telescope flying in a specially modified 747, able to fly high above the water vapour that makes IR astronomy almost impossible for ground based observatories. This facility is a joint project between NASA and DLR and is based out of the Armstrong flight research center in California.
However making a telescope that can fly in a plane and still be stable enough to do the required science is an engineering challenge. It's one that's solved by smart engineering rather than just brute force active gimbal control, a solution which Thanos would approve of.

Find out more about SOFIA at the project's website: https://www.sofia.usra.edu/



Other Videos By Scott Manley


2019-11-17How Many Things Are Wrong With This 'Space Shuttle' Image
2019-11-14If You Could See Every Satellite, What Would The Sky Look Like? 360/VR
2019-11-12Four Old Space Shuttle Engines Team Up For One Last Rocket Launch
2019-11-08What are Hypergolic Rocket Fuels? (Other than Explosive, Corrosive, Toxic, Carcinogenic and Orange)
2019-11-06Soviet Moon Rockets & The Mercury 13 - Real History Behind 'For All Mankind's Alternative History
2019-11-04Parachute Fails To Deploy During Boeing's Starliner Abort Test.
2019-10-30Everything We Know About The US Air Force's Secret Space Plane - The X-37B
2019-10-27How John Carmack's Armadillo Aerospace Has Been Reborn as Exos Aerospace.
2019-10-25The Moon Trees That Flew To The Moon On Apollo 14
2019-10-23IAC 2019 - Everyone's Going To The Moon - Rocketlab, Blue Origin, SpaceX
2019-10-21Why NASA's SOFIA Telescope On A Plane is "Perfectly Balanced"
2019-10-18What Makes NASA's Artemis Space Suit The Best Space Suit Yet?
2019-10-15Why The Juno Spacecraft is Afraid of the Dark
2019-10-15The European Space Agency Open Day At ESTEC - Part 4 - Moon Art.
2019-10-13The European Space Agency Open Day At ESTEC - Part 3 - Space Debris
2019-10-12The European Space Agency Open Day At ESTEC - Part 2
2019-10-10The European Space Agency Open Day At ESTEC - Part 1
2019-10-06The Viking Rocket Engine - Ariane's First Engine & Ancestor to ISRO's Vikas Engine
2019-10-03How Do Astronomers Define Latitude & Longitude on Other Planets
2019-10-0310 hours of Slowly Rotating Earth
2019-09-29Showcasing SpaceX's Shiny Stainless Starship


Tags:
sofia
NASA
DLR
astronomy
Ames
747sp
pan am
infrared
telescope