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Lightning Strikes Delay Shuttle Launch

Posted by timothy on from the hey-we've-all-got-problems dept.

Tisha_AH writes "The Space Shuttle has had its launch delayed for inspection after several lightning strikes to the launch tower and/or shuttle. Several different technologies have been applied by NASA to divert the strike energy to ground potentials with Air Terminals (lightning rods), surge protectors or the often-disputed use of static dissipator brushes. One technology that appears promising is to cause a lightning strike (to a safe location) through the use of short pulsed ultraviolet lasers. Maybe in the future, once the technology matures, we may find widespread use of UV lasers to protect space launch vehicles, antenna towers or buildings."

50 comments

  1. electric by ellenbee · · Score: 0, Redundant

    cool... lightning struck a tree once i was standing like 15 feet away from. Was awesome.

    1. Re:electric by dotgain · · Score: 1

      15 feet!? You were either way off in your measurement, extremely lucky, one-legged, or have a pretty perverse definition of 'awesome'.

  2. None of the strikes hit the shuttle... by fraik · · Score: 4, Informative

    "None of the strikes hit the shuttle or its external tank and solid rocket boosters, but there were strikes to the lightning mast and water tower."

    1. Re:None of the strikes hit the shuttle... by Cruciform · · Score: 3, Funny

      Awesome! Under the rules of homepathy that water is now imbued with lightning!
      Somebody needs to get a distribution deal. With the markup we can finance that Mars mission way ahead of schedule.

    2. Re:None of the strikes hit the shuttle... by Kell+Bengal · · Score: 2, Insightful
      And remember, the less you use the better it works!

      ...

      Somehow.

      --
      Scientists point out problems, engineers fix them
      altslashdot.org: The future of slashdot.
    3. Re:None of the strikes hit the shuttle... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I have the patent on lightning. Just sayin'

      --God

    4. Re:None of the strikes hit the shuttle... by Ellis+D.+Tripp · · Score: 3, Funny

      So if I don't use any, does that mean that I can die from a massive overdose?

      --
      Remember "News for Nerds, Stuff that Matters"? Help make it a reality again! http://soylentnews.org
    5. Re:None of the strikes hit the shuttle... by Kell+Bengal · · Score: 1
      Yes - it's very dangerous to overdose on homeopathic medicines.

      You'd better buy this sugar water just to be safe. A bargain at only $100!

      --
      Scientists point out problems, engineers fix them
      altslashdot.org: The future of slashdot.
    6. Re:None of the strikes hit the shuttle... by xOneca · · Score: 1

      there were strikes to the [...] water tower.

      Could it be better that "electrolysis" than from urine?

    7. Re:None of the strikes hit the shuttle... by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

      I have prior art.

      Regards,
          Zeus.
         

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
  3. Also in BBC by physburn · · Score: 4, Informative
    The BBC has the story here

    --

    Nasa can't afford to many delays in there program, if there are to get the ISS finished before the Shuttle program shutdowns down in september next year. The launch is now rescheduled to Sunday.

    --

    Space Craft Feed @ Feed Distiller

    1. Re:Also in BBC by e9th · · Score: 2, Informative

      But there is some good news. Remember Atlantis' stuck knob? They managed to pull it out by hand a while back.

    2. Re:Also in BBC by e9th · · Score: 1

      I probably should have worded that a bit differently.

    3. Re:Also in BBC by Kratisto · · Score: 1

      What have they done! Pulling out Atlantis' stuck knob by hand is the reason that continent sank in the first place!

      --
      Conscience is the inner voice which warns us that someone may be looking.
    4. Re:Also in BBC by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      NASA not Nasa
      too not to
      their not there
      they not there
      shuttle not Shuttle
      shuts not shutdowns
      September not september

      Other than those minor grammatical points, your post is shit.

  4. Spare U.S. The AgonY of Space Shuttle Failure by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    and just subcontract the work to theSoyuz engineers.

    What's next on the list of delays: slow pizza delivery,
    mice, North Korean botnets, or Bruno?

    Yours In Socialism,
    Kilgore Trout

  5. Bad Summary by PNutts · · Score: 2, Funny

    From TFA: None of the strikes hit the shuttle or its external tank and solid rocket boosters, but there were strikes to the lightning mast and water tower.

    Sheesh... You'd think it was Microsoft article.

  6. Like This by timeOday · · Score: 4, Interesting
    Not pertinent to the current delays, but this story reminded me of a cool picture.

    I wonder if lasers could be used to divert lightning from commercial airliners in-flight? There was some speculation it could have contributed to the recent Air France crash, though apparently it's not a leading theory.

    1. Re:Like This by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

      The picture is electrifying! Thanks.

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    2. Re:Like This by cathector · · Score: 3, Informative

      the lasers work by ionizing the air between the cloud and the source of the laser, effectively creating a guide wire which the lightning then follows from the cloud to .. the source of the laser. which in the case of an airplane would pretty much have to be the airplane, so i'm not sure it's quite what you want.

    3. Re:Like This by nethenson · · Score: 2, Interesting

      At least you would control the impact point, and would be able to divert the lightning from the most sensitive areas like the engines or the electronics. And you could force it to hit at a more prepared area of the airplane.

      --
      HermesPod: Free Podcast Download Manager for Windows
    4. Re:Like This by cathector · · Score: 3, Informative

      i guess that's so.
      although a little googling seems to indicate that airplanes are pretty well lightning-protected these days as it is.

    5. Re:Like This by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

      Couldn't you just encase the plane in a conductive substance, such as some kind of metal?

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
  7. but... by at_slashdot · · Score: 0, Troll

    can we mount UV lasers on sharks?

    --
    "It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities." -- Prof. Dumbledore
  8. power by heptapod · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Maybe they'll use the short pulsed ultraviolet lasers to make sure lightning strikes the vicinity of vast capacitors to generate energy for a city.

    1. Re:power by cathector · · Score: 1

      that's an interesting idea.
      seems like it should be testable with good old feet-on-carpet static electricity and some small cap's.

  9. strike by confused+one · · Score: 4, Informative

    While it has been pointed out that none of the strikes hit the shuttle itself... 7 of them hit the catenary wires or tower at the launch site and 2 of those were large enough to exceed the safety limit, inducing a 110V surge in the shuttle power system. While there's no damage indicated yet, this 24 hour stand down is to give the engineers and technicians time to check over the shuttle and all of the launch hardware.

  10. Waste of technology by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    > Maybe in the future, once the technology matures, we may find widespread use
    > of UV lasers to protect space launch vehicles, antenna towers or buildings."

    Or they could use, y'know, lightning rods.

  11. I wonder... by robinesque · · Score: 1

    Could this be used to collect lightning?

  12. Here's an idea by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Why don't the move the whole complex the hell out of Florida? Never should have gone there to begin with.

    1. Re:Here's an idea by R3d+M3rcury · · Score: 2, Informative

      Well, there are a few reasons for Florida.

      First, if you want to launch a spacecraft into an equatorial orbit, it's best to launch it from the equator. The rotation of the earth will give you about an 850 MPH boost. This is one reason that things that launch from Florida travel east. The further north you travel, the less rotational energy you get. If you consider the continental US, you're pretty much looking at either Florida or the bottom part of Texas.

      Second, ideally you want very little going on to the east, in the event of a problem. If you look to the east of Florida, you'll see a pretty big chunk of water where you can drop things without worrying too much about hitting something or someone. Texas, you have the Gulf of Mexico, but if the rocket veers north, you're hitting the southern part of the US. Veer a little south and you may end up hitting Cuba, which is not necessarily something the US would like to do.

      So Florida makes pretty good sense, actually.

    2. Re:Here's an idea by baegucb · · Score: 1

      So why wasn't Hawaii used? It's the furthest southern state and there's lots of water before reaching California. I know why the Johnson Space Center came about...LBJ.

    3. Re:Here's an idea by downix · · Score: 1

      At the time this was decided, Hawaii wasn't a US State.

      --
      Karma Whoring for Fun and Profit.
    4. Re:Here's an idea by R3d+M3rcury · · Score: 1

      I'd imagine one obvious reason would be logistics--it's probably easier and quicker to transport rocket parts to Florida than it is to Hawaii.

    5. Re:Here's an idea by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

      it's probably easier and quicker to transport rocket parts to Florida than it is to Hawaii.

      You mean there's something that isn't made in China?

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    6. Re:Here's an idea by robinesque · · Score: 1

      Yeah, they use a train to carry the boosters to the launch site. No trains to Hawaii! We need a chunnel 2.

  13. Video of the incident by sponga · · Score: 2, Interesting

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYHY_BVj1Xo

    I can't imagine the water tower being too complicated in electronics,open valve to get the water to the site to cool the concrete right?

    Other electronics on shuttle though must be checked.

    1. Re:Video of the incident by confused+one · · Score: 2, Informative

      There were 7 strikes that hit the water tower, launch tower and protective catenary wires. At least 2 of them exceeded safety limits; inducing unacceptable voltage spikes in electrical systems.

  14. Better Idea by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Don't build launch facilities in a "weather"-prone area (it may surprise you USians but, say, Europe has much calmer weather on average [less lightning strike] because of the macroclimate here vs there).

    1. Re:Better Idea by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

      Launch sites are in the southernmost parts of the US in order to get some extra push from Earth's rotation. (The rotational velocity is the highest at the equator.) If there were sufficient access to shipping and industry, launch sites ought to be valuable in other countries along the equator...

    2. Re:Better Idea by R3d+M3rcury · · Score: 3, Informative

      Which is why most European Space Agency missions are launched from French Guiana.

    3. Re:Better Idea by Glock27 · · Score: 2, Informative

      Don't forget the US has an equatorial launch facility: "2500 miles southwest of Hawaii on Omelek Island, part of the Reagan Test Site (RTS) at United States Army Kwajalein Atoll (USAKA) in the Central Pacific." That's where SpaceX has tried some launches...

      --
      Galileo: "The Earth revolves around the Sun!"
      Score: -1 100% Flamebait
    4. Re:Better Idea by Velocir · · Score: 1

      Why is this modded Funny instead of Informative?

    5. Re:Better Idea by Guysmiley777 · · Score: 1

      The majority of Europe is also at a much higher latitude. The southern tip of Florida is about the same latitude as southern Algeria.

      --
      Coding with assembly is like playing with Legos. Coding an application in assembly is like building a car with Legos.
  15. Why wait for UV lasers? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    There's been successful use of rockets trailing ground wires to trigger lightning strikes for many years. Why not use that technology? It's most likely less expensive overall...

  16. What a tremendous pain in the ass. by Bootsy+Collins · · Score: 1

    My group has a satellite going up on this launch. It got delayed from last month; now it's delayed again.

  17. Atlantis shuttle news -- Knob removed, window OK by 4181 · · Score: 1

    The knob that was stuck between the dashboard and windshield of Atlantis (discussed here two weeks ago) was succesfully removed using dry ice, a pressurized orbiter, and "hand pressure to manipulate it loose". The window subsequently passed inspection. Recall that window replacement could have caused a six month delay.

  18. How green is that laser method? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The discussion about the lasers talks of very strong lasers in order to ionise the air. How much energy will be required to power one of those lasers? How many tons of carbon dioxide will running one of those beasts cost? And for what benefit?

    I'd rather see more/higher lightning rods erected that have a once off fixed cost (in terms of energy and greenhouse gas contributions.)

    1. Re:How green is that laser method? by Tisha_AH · · Score: 1

      They are not CW (continuous wave) lasers, they are pulsed with pulses in the microsecond range (just like the flash on a camera).. There is a power equation on the paper postulating that 200 pSec (picosecond) pulses at 50 MW (megawatts) are seen as optimal.

      If my math is right (10 -12 is a picosecond) multiplied by pulse power 50,000,000 watts per pulse, then factoring in lasing efficiencies (for the sake of argument, lets assume that the laser is only 10% efficient). This comes out to around 1/10th of a watt per pulse.

      So give the laser a pulse repetition rate of ten times a second, use a mirror to fan it across the sky, creating little ionization channels to the clouds within 5 miles of the laser (it can have a much longer range but because when it is overcast close to the ground, you lose range so we downplay the area and distances covered).

      Add in more losses, air conditioning to keep the laser nice and happy, mirror power, some type of control system...

      This could draw less power than your computer. The air conditioning for a small enclosure will be the biggest load.

      --
      Tisha Hayes