Bad Testing Doomed NASA's Hypersonic X-43A

RobertB-DC writes "Space.com got hold of NASA's yet-to-be-released report on the June 2001 failure of the air-breathing X-43A hypersonic research vehicle, and it doesn't look good for 'Faster, Better, Cheaper'. The report refuses to single out any one contributing factor, but it cites ground testing 'inaccuracies' and 'misinterpretation' of wind tunnel data -- in particular, failure to retest the vehicle after additional heat protection was added. As noted in the original Slashdot article, the craft went out of control when the fins broke off just seconds into flight."

Comments

Another Bloody Techincal Story

[Michael's a Jerk!]

I'm concerned about the narrowm view of the world IT people and engineers
have these days. I think the problem starts at college -
There's a culture that somehow science is more rational and usefull
then the humanitities. Lecturers encourage students to joke about arts
students, and humilaite them whenever possible. This encourages
eliteism, and I for one am sick of it.

Let's tell it like it is. 'science' is just as much about opinion as
the humanities. Research simply follows the fad of the day. Take
dieticians for example. These men and woman believe that just because
they have degree in medical science that they are all knowing. Why,
what they recommend one day may kill you the next! (see the DDT story
for more information.) Science is 95% opinion then facts, lets face
it. What about astrology, the most rediculious of the sciences! But I
degress...

Another example is music. We know what sounds good. Everyone aggreed
that Valves for instance sound great. But knowitall engineers use
trensastors with inferious sound quality just to save a few bucks.
They argue with numbers. Hey, I don't want to do maths just to listen
to music. I know what I like. You cannot apply objective reasoning to
a subject which is intristically subjective. But try telling those
recent grads with their useless piece of paper that and they go all
mightier--then-thou.

The problem with you technical guys are that you are all so eliteist.
Whilst you want to trun collage into a trade school with yore narrow
minded views that collage should be a job training centre, humanities
are focused on making you a well rounded person who is auctually
interesting to be with, not a boring focuesed geek. Really, it makes
me so mad when people say "oh, he's doing a humanities degree, that's
easy". I have to read *3* *books* *a* *week* on average. Not picture
books either I assue you. It is a lot of work, but the upshot is
improved grammer and spelling skills that are lacking in the
technical. As for those that say "you will be working at mcdonalds" ,
I'm going on to so a PhD in socialolgy where I'll be line for tenure
where I have a much more rewarding job then beeing a science freak or
an engineer. Anyways, all I have to do to be a engineer wold be to get
my MSCE and how hard couyld that be? techincal stuff is simply
whatever fad the market thinks is hot at the moment, but all great
things were done by humanities.

You technical types are far to narrow minded and cynsical. You should
learn to enjoy life.

Peace be to god, he transcends all.

Re:Another Bloody Techincal Story

[Anonymous Coward]

So you get your PHD is sociology, and everyone can start calling you Doctor right? Terrific. Then, Doctor, the only job you'll be able to find as a sociologist will be a generic position with some municipal mental health organization for $27,577.87 a year.

But don't worry Doc, when you get your tenure you'll be sure to make more than $40,000. But you won't care about the money, or status. You'll probably just be happy talking your sociologist talk in those dusty old municipal offices, dealing with piles of paperwork that have been accumulating since Dr. King made his speech in 1963.

I'm sure that sociology is a respectable profession Doc. But don't think that all tech's are not well rounded. How could a respectable Doctor of sociology make such a bold claim without hard evidence and studies to back it up? Didn't they teach you about research and testing in school?

Or is it only us engineers that follow through with the scientific process?

They says Linux was used in this.

[Anonymous Coward]

Had the testing been done with a mature and professionally written OS, like Windows, the testing would have been accurate and quick. As it shows, using Linux ended up costing the taxpayer more in the end.
.

sigh...and there was me thinking hemos and co

[Anonymous Coward]

had finally got rid of that lying loser asswipe micheal. what a shame.

NASA math

[Anonymous Coward]

That explains it! W's economic advisors have been taking math lessons from NASA.