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NASA Commemorates Space Shuttle Tragedies
eldavojohn writes "Space.com is covering NASA's commemoration of the Apollo 1 crew & the last shuttle crews of both the Challenger and Columbia orbiters. The Apollo 1 crew was lost forty years ago yesterday to a fire while testing their spacecraft on a launch pad. From the article: 'While the nearly two decades separating NASA's three space disasters allowed room for the agency to grow complacent, the relatively short time between the 2003 loss of Columbia and the end of the shuttle program could avoid a repeat of such behavior.'"
god bless you all.
For the heroic efforts of the astronauts who died for enhancing our knowledge of the universe, I salute you all!!! I just wish our governments would turn to peaceful efforts and get the space program back into space -- and further than ever before.
We aught to get out of stupid wars, recover a little financial sanity and work on getting NASA going full tilt to warp drive...
I disagree. Whilst shuttle saftey could be improved by newer vehicles, the design in general just isn't safe, it doesn't allow for any reasonable launch escape system. The ejector seats that were fitted for the first few flights are impractical do to the very small section of the flight envelope in which they can be used, and the fact that several crew members are in the lower deck, making ejection impossible for them. The only abort modes of flight still require the boosters to run their course and then be jetissoned.
With safe, cheap access to Earth orbit.
With a permanent human presence on the Moon.
With human exploration of Mars.
And with a long-range, focused, ambitious programme for human involvement in space exploration that will take us to all the major planets in our solar system, pushing science and technology for the benefit of the whole human race.
Sorry, I've been at the malt whisky.
Stick Men
Sorry, I've been at the malt whisky.
It's really unfortunate that in this day and age you'd have to qualify a beautiful sentiment like the rest of your post like that. There was a time in this country, and not too long ago where you could say something like that and not have to cover your ass.
I think what you said stands just fine on its own. If we really want to honor these people, we need to show them and the world in general that their sacrifice was not in vain. And the best way of doing that is to continue their work.
Weaselmancer
rediculous.
Do not fly between Jan 27 and Feb 1, since all three accidents occur with in those days.
If a job's not worth doing, it's not worth doing right.
My parents have a time-share in Orlando during the first week of February. On our way to the time-share from the airport, on January 31, 2003, my parents told me and my siblings, "We have a surprise for you guys. We bought you tickets to Kennedy Space Center to see Columbia land tomorrow."
Columbia was due at about 9:16am, and the tour bus dropped us off at about 8:55am. There was a crowd of maybe 200 people outside the main entrance of the space center looking up at the sky and listening to mission control's updates on a speaker mounted outside. 9:16 came and went, and the PA system went silent. At about 9:25 my dad called my cell phone and told me that they had lost communication with Columbia.
At this point, we didn't know if they were going to close the space center to the public, so we redeemed our passes to get into the place. Kennedy staff members were crying, but they continued to be helpful. We made our way to the Shuttle Pavilion, where there was a feed from mission control indicating that there had been a "contingency," and that people who found parts of the orbiter should keep their distance due to potential hazardous materials.
As the day went on, people flowed to the Space Center. At 1:00 or 1:30 there was a ceremony at the astronauts' memorial, and the flag was lowered to half mast.
The tours of the facility were closed, but the displays, including the magnificent Rocket Garden, were available.
It was an unreal day, one I'll never forget. I could have learned a lot more about what happened at home on CNN, but I'm glad I was there.
--I'm so big, my sig has its own sig.
-- See?
This is a common theme that permeates almost all discussions that talk about sending humans into space. Why don't we just send robots? They're more capable, able to do more work, less costly, etc, etc, etc.
I'm sure everyone is familiar with, or at least the work of, Dr Steven Squyre, Mars Exploration Rover PI (Spirit and Opportunity robots). He gave the following message at a NASA Administrator's Symposium back in 2004 and repeated the same message at ISDC in LA last year. It's a long read but well worth it. I've emphasized the central points:
I'd like to finish this on a slightly lighter note by telling you a story. We had a lot of discussion yesterday about humans versus robots. And as the robot guy here, I want to tell a story about the experience that I had that really taught me a lot about that particular topic. We were at first trying to figure out how to use a set of rovers on Mars to really do scientific exploration. The technology folks at JPL [Jet Propulsion Laboratory] built a wonderful little vehicle called FIDO. And FIDO was a great test rover - you could take it out in the field and you didn't worry about getting a few scratches in the paint.
We took it out to a place called Silver Lake in the Mojave Desert about 1997. And we went out there and it was the first time I had ever been out in the field. So I went out there with my team - a bunch of really high-priced geologic talent - some serious field geologists. And we got the rover out there and, of course, the rover breaks down. First time I've ever been out in the field, it's dusty, it's dirty, you know, the rover's not working. So okay, what am I going to do with all these bored geologists I've got on my hands? So I said, "Look, let's go on a geology walk. Let's go on a little field trip." So everybody got their boots and their rock hammers and their hand lenses and everything. And I picked up a notebook and a stopwatch. And we walked out to a nearby ridge where I knew there was some interesting geology exposed and we sat down - or rather I sat down - and they went off and they started geologizing.
And I started timing them. You know, how long does it take for Andy Knoll to walk over to that rock? How long does it take Ray Arvidson to pick that thing up and break it open with his rock hammer and look at it with a hand lens? And they were doing a lot of things that our rovers couldn't do, but I focused on the things they were doing that our rovers could do. And, you know, I did it as quantitatively as I could - this was hardly a controlled experiment. And when I looked at the numbers afterwards, what I found was that what our magnificent robotic vehicles can do in an entire day on Mars, these guys could do in about 30-45 seconds.
We are very far away from being able to build robots - I'm not going to see it in my lifetime - that have anything like the capabilities that humans will have to explore, let alone to inspire. And when I hear people point to Spirit and Opportunity and say that these are examples of why we don't need to send humans to Mars, I get very upset. Because that's not even the right discussion to be having. We must send humans to Mars. We can't do it soon enough for me. You know, I'm a robot guy. I mean, I love Spirit and Opportunity - and I use a word like "love" very advisedly when talking about a hunk of metal.
But I love those machines. I miss them. I do. But they will never, ever have the capabilities that humans will have and I sure hope you send people soon.
On January 28, 1986 I was a 12yo boy in Florida staring out of my math class day dreaming as a I watched that oh so familiar arc of light streak into the sky. I was a boy who had been building spacecraft with Legos since I was 4. I was never a normal boy. I always did things like build airlocks into my spacecraft. It just seemed obvious. From the time I was 4 my mother has been terrified that I would get my feet off the ground.
On February 1, 2003 I had given up my first career as a software developer and had returned to school at the University of Central Florida to study Aerospace Engineering. I was early in my second semester and I was sitting in the Engineering atrium between Engineering Buildings 1 and 2. I was studying Calculus (calc 2 specifically) and I looked up at the flat screen monitors hanging from the walkway. I was sitting there staring at the screens watching the multiple pieces of debris streaking across the Texas sky. I sat and paused but I didn't cry. Challenger had hardened that in me. I thought for a moment and went back to my text book.
On May 6, 2006 I graduated UCF with a Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Engineering. Two weeks later I had moved to Seattle and began working at Boeing on the 787 as a Systems Engineer. I spent my senior year mastering orbital mechanics and satellite design.
Am I there yet? No. But my own history has taught me two things: the road is long and others will be lost. Morbid? possibly.. But I never gave up a dream and I never will. Someday my career will take me there, to insure that I will do what I need to do.
For some people it is natural to dream and then move on. For others, that dream never quite dies.
Planetes
"One World, One Web, One Program" - Microsoft Promo Ad
"Ein Volk, Ein Reich, Ein Fuhrer" - Adolf Hitl