Slashdot Mirror

At least according to this article on spaceref.com which states that the eartch approaching asteroid 2000 BF19 has a small probability of impacting Earth. And this press release would seem to counteract the claims made here, since NASA states they have cut their estimate of the total number of large asteriods in the Solar System in half.

Perhaps trusting statistical analysis is the problem? Whats the saying "There are lies, damn lies, and statistics"?

I submitted this story, with a link to this brief article 5 hours ago and it was rejected. I don't want to whine, but its a shame to see the same story posted as news HOURS after it broke, but quoting a different website.

The only effective difference between the posting on Spaceref.com and Space.com is the fact that the former is more cautious about what is effectively still a rumour, and the later is willing to declare it fact when we won't actually know most of the details until they make the official announcement.

There is more information related to this article here on spaceref.com

The astronomers used the telescope to bounce radar signals off Kleopatra. With sophisticated computer-analysis techniques, they decoded the echoes, transformed them into images, and assembled a computer model of the asteroid's shape. The Arecibo telescope underwent major upgrades in the 1990s, which dramatically improved its sensitivity and made it feasible to image more distant objects. These new radar images were obtained when Kleopatra was about 106 million miles (171 million kilometers) from Earth. Travelling at the speed of light, the transmitted signal took about 19 minutes to make the round trip to Kleopatra and back. "Getting images of Kleopatra from Arecibo was like using a Los Angeles telescope the size of the human eye's lens to image a car in New York," Ostro said. From the article at JPL. Sounds fun--apologies if my link is broken, I'm still messing around with this.

Click below for proof:
"asteroid"
Satellite of Love (of MST3K fame)

Slashdot screwed up the links for me somehow (or I screwed up). The press release is here.

The press releases is available in HTML format (and with an active link to additional information on the Hubble website) here. As usual, Spaceref.com had this posted yesterday, Slashdot is tad slow on the uptake where space science and exploration is concerned.

The press releases is available in HTML format (and with an active link to additional information on the Hubble website) here. As usual, Spaceref.com had this posted yesterday, Slashdot is tad slow on the uptake where space science and exploration is concerned.

Yeah I think its hilarious. I applied to be an editor for DMOZ a while ago. I filled in the form, found 8 websites they did not have listed, wrote original descriptions for them, and posted the results. They rejected me though, apparently because they thought I was not qualified.

I am in fact the editor for Maplesquare - A Canadian directory of websites (and probably the largest Canadian-owned and operated one at that). As well I am a programmer for Spaceref.com, doing some backend administration stuff.

But am I qualified to volunteer my time to work on DMOZ? Evidently not. Oh, well, it gives me more time to write code.

The full story can be read here.

Can we infer that the whole truth is now slowly coming out? Did the original article serve as a catalyst to get to the truth? More to follow.

Quoting from his article "And in a March 9 internal memo from JPL director Ed Stone, which UPI has obtained, space workers are warned that "the days ahead may at times be difficult."

As first reported on NASA Watch On November 8th NASA did indeed know that there could be a problem with the thrusters. Here is an excerpt of the press release; "The NASA investigation board, chaired by Art Stephenson, director of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala., found that cold temperatures could affect the performance Mars Polar Lander's descent engine, which begins firing at about 2 kilometers (about 10 miles) altitude during the descent to Mars surface. As a result of the finding, a team of engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., has developed procedures to warm up the engine system prior to firing. In addition, the team has analyzed descent engine performance at a range of temperatures to assess its predicted performance upon arrival."

The report on the Mars Polar Lander to be relased shortly will no doubt tarnish NASA's reputation in the short term. The repercussions of the last two failed Mars missions could set back the exploration of the solar system 5-10 years. While perhaps it is time for some serious reorganization at NASA we must not let these setbacks stop us. NASA's budget is small and has been shrinking for some time. If the U.S. is to lead the world in space exploration then a stronger committment is required by government.

Marc Boucher

As always with anything to do with Space, if you want the latest information on this issue, be sure to check Spaceref.com and NASA Watch. In this matter, I believe NASA Watch was reporting a possible engine problem back in November - although there was no corroborating evidence at the time. The fact that they knew about the problems with the MPL was reported yesterday.

Certainly, some heads are going to roll in NASA, and hopefully the blame gets placed where it should be - on the shoulders of whoever decided to cover this up. Also, blame should apparently be placed on the folks at Lockheed Martin (the company that I believe built the engines on the MPL) who must have known there was a problem with their engines.

The biggest problem is of course the budget for NASA, which has been steadily decreasing over the last few years. I think it is ludicrous of us to expect NASA to launch missions like these without a proper budget for development, manufacturing, and testing of the equipment. In this case, apparently the money was simply not there to afford a complete test of the whole landing proceedure - which would have made it obvious that the engines were not going to work and that the censors for shutting them off would not work either.

OTOH, it is also criminal for a project of this magnitude and expense to go ahead with a known flaw that will prevent its success, and those responsible should be called to the mat for their explanations.

Sadly, this will probably put space exploration back several years, and the blame will probably end up on the shoulders of good people who didn't deserve it.

Actually there is work being done on the Interplanetary Network Protocol (IPN) at this time. There is an article on it here and here (and yes, we suggested this story to Rob and the boys and got turned down for some reason). Its quite a fascinating task to tackle.

Disclaimer: I work for spaceref.com just so you know...

Actually there is work being done on the Interplanetary Network Protocol (IPN) at this time. There is an article on it here and here (and yes, we suggested this story to Rob and the boys and got turned down for some reason). Its quite a fascinating task to tackle.

Disclaimer: I work for spaceref.com just so you know...

NASA doesn't really like all these attempts to save Mir because they are concerned that Russia can't build enough rockets to satisfy their commitment to ISS as well as Mir. Although ISS can be supplied via the space shuttle, crews have to be launched on Soyuz rockets. This is because the shuttle can only stay in space for a couple of weeks and NASA won't leave astronauts on the space station with no way of getting down. The Soyuz capsules can stay in space for extended periods of time to provide an emergency exit for the station, so NASA decided to use them for ISS crews. I believe that the Soyuz is also necessary to reboost the station. NASA is developing a 7-person crew return vehicle, but they have to use Soyuz rockets until the new CRV is ready. See a NASA Watch/SpaceRef editorial on this here.

http://www.spaceref.com