Datalaxy: A Constellation that can be chaos, unless…

As utopian as a world built on the fabric of data sounds, we cannot ignore the underbelly of privacy worries, security dangers and interoperability predicaments here. Are we overthinking about some Black Holes?

- Pratima H

Scenario 1: Enter the NASA observatory where Greg Robinson walked in after being appointed as the director of the Webb program. After many giant struggles, the ambitious dream of sending the telescope into orbit around the sun was ignited again—and this time, it was onto his shoulders. It was project with a team of 10,000 people on a $10 billion project. There was no room for error or oversight now. And that’s what Robinson proved when he attacked the problems like the one sitting way deep into a bunch of loose screws and washers. Webb’s sunshield, a crucial structure of protection of the observatory from extreme temperatures – was supposed to unpack itself in outer space – so if the fasteners on the sunshield go loose – it is not just one screw gone wrong. It’s a scary domino effect—delaying the launch-date by months and ballooning the costs by millions. The answer – a blanket audit of the entire system—with no angle left. The paperwork against the hardware was checked at every level. So were the specifications, drawings, purchase requests, and other data entries. And thus—the problems were fixed. Leading all the way to big Christmas launch of Webb on Ariane 5.