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Richard Easther

@rjme.bsky.social

3.3K followers 350 following 2.8K posts

Father, husband, scientist, Kiwi diaspora returnee, prof @aucklanduni.bsky.social‬ - opinions mine. He/Him

Science: https://cosmology.auckland.ac.nz
Blog: https://excursionset.com
Newsletter: https://buttondown.com/excursionset

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Richard Easther

@rjme.bsky.social

11/11 is Pocky Day in Japan (for reasons that are actually pretty obvious when you think about it)

November 11, 2025 at 11:01 AM

Richard Easther

@rjme.bsky.social

Or why did MethaeSAT spokespeople repeatedly make misleading statements about the health of the mission -- and more importantly (to the New Zealand taxpayer), why did MBIE let them?

There was no shortage of bad news, but transparency was an ongoing challenge for the EDF. To give just one
example, after MethaneSAT's failure there were repeated claims by project participants that it had returned a
"year's worth" of data. See this Harvard Gazette piece, this Tweet and this New York Times article, for example.
Exactly how much is a "year's worth"? In its sales pitch, MethaneSAT aimed to image up to 20 "scenes" each day - so, many thousands of snapshots a year. However, the project website speaks of "hundreds" of unprocessed
observations, which looks more like maybe one month's worth of data gathered over the course of a year. As one colleague put it, "You can't polish a turd, but you can roll it in glitter." Less colourfully, carefully
constructed talking points are the polar opposite of "open and honest"
However, the most serious issue was an October 2024 email to Radio New Zealand's Eloise Gibson, asserting: We have been collecting images since May and have been in nominal operations since June when
commissioning completed and we turned it over to New Zealand to operate Within the space community, "nominal" is shorthand for everything operating as expected. The terminology comes straight from the crew-cut and pocket protector era of the 1960s and offers no scope for dissembling or ambiguity. Its misuse by a professional - claiming that something was working well when it very much wasn't -
would be close to blasphemy. But it seems that MethaneSAT was "off-nominal" for almost all of its life.

November 7, 2025 at 7:49 PM

Richard Easther

@rjme.bsky.social

A lot of questions go unanswered e.g. why did the @methanesat.bsky.social team fly a spacecraft that, by their own admission, was not designed to deal with the entirely predictable radiation environment you find in space. That doesn't make sense.

QUOTE ... the onboard fault detection software places the spacecraft into safe mode for the ground operators to assess and reset the required electronics. These ... events continued throughout the life of MethaneSAT as the high solar activity continued. MethaneSAT was not designed with the costly radiation-hardened
components found, for example, on military spacecraft.
— MethaneSAT spokesperson

This is not so much an excuse but a confession, to the extent that colleagues of mine literally laughed out loud when they saw it. Yes, solar activity (which produces charged particles that are mostly blocked by the atmosphere but cause problems for spacecraft) was at the peak of its 11 year cycle in 2024. But it is a well-known feature of the space environment. It makes no sense that any satellite, military or otherwise, would not be built to withstand the expected conditions.

November 7, 2025 at 7:49 PM

Richard Easther

@rjme.bsky.social

Getting there...

November 7, 2025 at 7:47 AM

Richard Easther

@rjme.bsky.social

Grading playlist summoned for service...

November 7, 2025 at 6:15 AM

Richard Easther

@rjme.bsky.social

Old enough to remember when "the fully Monty" was a buffet breakfast. Keeping the old ways alive.

A plate with baked beans tomato sausage bacon and mushrooms

November 2, 2025 at 7:34 PM

Richard Easther

@rjme.bsky.social

I think there are four unique individuals in this mess

October 31, 2025 at 11:02 PM

Richard Easther

@rjme.bsky.social

Perk of the job.

A closeup of the moon showing craters and the terminator between day and night on the lunar surface

October 31, 2025 at 7:43 AM

Richard Easther

@rjme.bsky.social

Checking I can still wear this (Also, do I get extra points for knowing where the image comes from? It is actually a cool story and uses both of my two conversational skills: astronomy and changing the subject to astronomy when we are not talking about astronomy)

October 28, 2025 at 7:50 AM

Richard Easther

@rjme.bsky.social

Yesterday v. today in the South Island

October 23, 2025 at 12:38 AM

Richard Easther

@rjme.bsky.social

Skulls...

October 21, 2025 at 7:53 PM

Richard Easther

@rjme.bsky.social

But first you must approved by the Wallet Inspector.

October 20, 2025 at 1:36 AM

Richard Easther

@rjme.bsky.social

Indeed.

October 20, 2025 at 12:43 AM

Richard Easther

@rjme.bsky.social

I hadn't seen this before, but Apple just dropped my kid's band into it... Warm glow of paternal pride :-)

October 19, 2025 at 7:55 AM

Richard Easther

@rjme.bsky.social

I actually like the new MacOS Tahoe even if I did turn off Dock transparency - that was a bridge too far. But it has a strong Aqua vibe -- back to the future, I guess.