Decoding James Webb Space Telescope

Re:Decoding James Webb Space Telescope by cycomanic on Monday December 27, 2021 @01:41PM (#29705342)

I highly suspect that China (and almost every other country) are not the issue. Chinese and the whole international scientific community will profit immensely from the data coming from James Webb, so I don't think the Chinese have any interest in sabotaging the project. More dangerous would be some average joe, somewhere who would try to mess with it for the lulz.

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Re:Decoding James Webb Space Telescope by foobiekr on Monday December 27, 2021 @02:19PM (#29705795)

Embarrassing the US is high value.

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Re:Decoding James Webb Space Telescope by wongarsu on Monday December 27, 2021 @03:49PM (#29706624)

If somebody like China is caught sabotaging JWST the fallout could be immense. They would be accused of trying to hold back human progress, and I could easily imagine high profile Chinese scientists leaving the country and science institutions boycotting China. It's not worth the risk.

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Re:Decoding James Webb Space Telescope by foobiekr on Wednesday December 29, 2021 @12:08PM (#29726817)

Schemes like that would involve not taking credit for it - just another example of US failure, not a success by China.

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Re:Decoding James Webb Space Telescope by leephillips on Monday December 27, 2021 @04:20PM (#29706900)

I also don’t think they would want to do this, but I think you’re overestimating the risk. Genocide, stealing the entire South China Sea, and threatening the sovereignty of other nations haven’t inspired such boycotts.

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Re:Decoding James Webb Space Telescope by adventured on Monday December 27, 2021 @07:42PM (#29708859)

They actually understated the risk by incorrectly assessing where it would come from.

The primary risk would be that the US would hit back and attempt to sabotage something important to China (and with China's sprawling global interests now, there are a vast number of soft, highly exposed targets). The US Government can be quite vindictive depending on the context, it will hit you back if it can. The responsible agency wouldn't seek publicity for any successful sabotage, but China would know who did it and what it was for.

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Re:Decoding James Webb Space Telescope by TedDoesntTalk on Monday December 27, 2021 @01:51PM (#29705469)

Or terrorist organizations with tech skills

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Re:Decoding James Webb Space Telescope by iszomer on Monday December 27, 2021 @04:53PM (#29707244)

Or frame the average Joe for the lulz for political points.

(sorry, I'm just now reading into the drama with the fbi and gov. whitmer..)

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