Why does it take sooo much time to "rebuild" US NAVY website?

[polgyver]

This web site is so useful for quick finding, among other things, positions of Sun and Moon in any day, hour and minute. Easy finding of Sun fade, also easy directing of a dish to proper azimuth (with a string from LNBF to top of a dish) at right time. The Moon "visits" the Clarke belt 2 times a month, more precisely - alternatively every 11 or 16 days. This can help determine whether certain satellite is obscured by objects or not.
The "rebuilding" began in Fall of 2019, projected completion - in Spring 2020. However, it was delayed a few times...
Does any member of our Forum know or has any idea why there is such a delay ? Regards, polgyver.
5 photos follow :

 

[Jim S.]

Laziness? Incompetence? The National Weather Service still hasn't updated its radar displays to not use Flash -- something that was supposed to have happened by May 2020 also. I'm sure they'll blame it on the pandemic, but that shouldn't have been an excuse because the programmers should've been able to work from home.

If you have a Linux system, you should be able to install (or build, if nobody has packaged it for your distro) XEphem, and get the data you want.

 

[N0QBH]

In MN we had the MNLARS fiasco. Statewide vehicle licensing system cobbled together by government codesmiths that failed miserably and cost hundreds of millions to be properly done by pros. The problem, IMHO, was the govt coders were probably hot stuff a decade ago, but existing 10 years out of the mainstream left them woefully incompetent to the new challenge.

 

[polgyver]

"programmers should've been able to work from home."
Thanks, Jim S, that's right opinion. Too many failures are now eagerly assigned to virus...
It is sad to notice that access to technical information by general public has been diminished. Years ago, one could go to library and consult various encyclopedias, magazines or car manuals or electronic schematics of TV's. Now, Internet was expected to take over, but it is almost impossible to find a schematic of, say, power supply of Yamaha keyboard or TV.
Maybe free access to tech info will gradually disappear...

 

[NYDutch]

If it's typical of many government projects, especially DOD related projects, the required documentation can often take as long or longer than the project itself. Under the current circumstances, I suspect getting approvals for various site components and data access clearances could also hold things up. I've edited documentation for a number of Federal projects where by the time the needed approvals and clearances came through, the project was either obsolete or had been canceled due to changing requirements.

 

[polgyver]

Online calculator: Sun position at a given date. Azimuth and elevation table. here is a link to a web site for finding out position of Sun for certain day and hour/minute.
It is pre-set for Moscow. Co-ordinates can be replaced by actual ones, longitude can be input with minus (-) sign for USA/Canada, also time scale can be changed from 5 to 1 minute or higher. Number of displays can be increased to 1000.
So, this site takes care of Sun, maybe better than Navy portal (still not working - what a shame...).
I hope to find similar site also for the Moon, though...
cheers, polgyver

 

[jorgek]

Here's a site for moon position.

Daily Moon Position for any location worldwide including magnetic declination, altitude, azimuth, and relative brightness - Home

geographic specific daily and current position information of the moon including magnetic declination, altitude, azimuth, and relative brightness

www.dailymoonposition.com