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Columbia Coverage

Posted by michael on from the thunder-on dept.

ke4roh writes "Space.com offers a list of questions and answers about the events and hardware surrounding Columbia's destruction Saturday. They address suspected causes, foam, tile, and some of the alternatives had NASA known the ship would not be able to re-enter the atmosphere." viewstyle writes "PC Magazine has a pack of stuff put together on the space shuttle accident, as they recognized the fact that the space program inspired a lot of tech people in general. What's pretty cool is the section written by a guy there who worked on the computer components in the shuttle." And naturally, the idea of a space elevator is back in vogue again.

3 of 615 comments (clear)

  1. Condolances Can Be Sent Here by Acidic_Diarrhea · · Score: 5, Informative
    I think the most important thing I saw in that article was this address to send condolances to:

    People wishing to express their sympathies can send notes to this address:
    Johnson Space Center
    NASA Road 1
    Houston, TX, 77058

    The astronauts are heroes who risk their lives to better our world. They are truly the best of the best and I think we have taken them for granted. Since Apollo, the missions they've been on haven't been attention-grabbing and shuttle launches became routine. But I think this event has awoken us to the fact that space exploration is one of the most important fields and we need to give NASA more funding. It's time to realize that space exploration is costly but to make it safe, it is even more costly. I'm also going to draft a few letters to my national representatives and let them know that NASA needs omre money. THe launch of a space shuttle is not mundane and we should still be in awe of it.

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    I hate liberals. If you are a liberal, do not reply.
  2. The Software by OECD · · Score: 5, Informative

    There's a good story about the software team at NASA here.

    From the story: "Consider these stats : the last three versions of the program -- each 420,000 lines long-had just one error each. The last 11 versions of this software had a total of 17 errors."

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    One man's -1 Flamebait is another man's +5 Funny.
  3. Off-scale and zero readings are still useful by MyNameIsFred · · Score: 5, Informative
    As was noted in the press conference over the weekend, off-scale and zero readings are still useful. For example, a zero reading in one sensor implies a broken sensor. When several read zero, it implies a multiplexer box is damaged or a wire has been cut.

    So what the engineers will do is pull the threads. For example, it may be possible to explain all the off-scale and zero readings by assuming a particular wire bundle was cut at a certain point. This can lead them to look at the surrounding structure in more detail. They'll also look carefully at the times at which sensors went bad to determine how the structural damage evolved.

    Basically the effort is to look at all possible causes of the disaster and use the telemtry to eliminate them one-by-one. Zero readings in sensors will probably be inconsistent with some possible explanations, thus eliminating them.