Slashdot Mirror
NASA’s Contest To Design the Last Shuttle Patch
rocamargo writes "The space shuttle program is on its way out, but the core of people who built and maintained it will live on. To honor them, NASA gave its employees the chance to design the patch that will commemorate the shuttle program, which is slated to end in September, after STS-133 flies. From the designs of 85 current and former employees, the Shuttle Program Office has selected 15 finalists. The prospective patches, presented here, will be voted on internally by NASA employees and judged by a small panel." I've been thinking a lot lately about the end of the Space Shuttle. For someone my age, the shuttle really *IS* space travel. I'm going to be really sad to see STS-133 land.
Don't they trust the vote?
Are they talking about a software patch (I would have thought they would have the bugs in the software ironed out by now) or a hardware patch (as in to stick over a tile that is damaged at liftoff by falling ice from the external tank).
On the bright side, commercial space flight is nearing the point of practicality.
"His name was James Damore."
September the unemployment will go up about 0.5 to 1% as a result.....
Of course I doubt they would go with a shuttle picture with billions blowing out the exhaust as something to highlight.
I wonder how many years our exploration/exploitation of space has been on hold because of the costs of the shuttle program. Would we have people already on the moon? We made this grand celebration of getting into orbit in a fancy science fiction looking way and just stopped.
It was like, ain't this enough? Granted NASA's budget is a drop in the bucket (and no the Iraq war ain't denying NASA any money - it would have gone elsewhere through some other politician fantasy) of the overall federal government but still, how much of a detour was the shuttle?
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
... is the best by far. Most of those entries won't embroider well at all.
What bugs is it supposed to fix?
Some patches only show 5 shuttles, and dont count Enterprise, but the others do ?
It's really quite sad to see another step backward in human spaceflight. I grew up in the '80s when the shuttle was exciting but thought we'd have progressed beyond it by now. As a child a space station meant a large circular wheel with a central hub that thousands of people were living on and which was stepping off point for missions further out. Much as I appreciate the science going on with what we have, it sure would be nice if mankind was a little bolder.
rocamargo writes
"I've been thinking a lot lately about the end of the Space Shuttle. For someone my age, the shuttle really *IS* space travel. I'm going to be really sad to see STS-133 land."
I suspect the crew will be really happy to see STS-133 land! :-)
I like #10 the most, has the most symbology of the bunch without being a ra-ra or bemoaning the passing of the era.
I just hope NASA gets its act together and goes DIRECT before we loose those talented ground ops staff.
Karma Whoring for Fun and Profit.
I thought they were trying to formulate a compound that could be applied with a trowel by the Canadian robot arm to fill in where a tile had fallen off during takeoff.
I'm going to be really sad to see STS-133 land.
So you're saying you'd be happier if it just exploded instead of landing?
Frankly, I'm now glad to see the shuttle retiring and I'm greatly looking forward to the impending launch of the first SpaceX Falcon 9 this spring ( http://www.spacex.com/updates.php ) . Space will not be conquered with government programs, but by private enterprise and individuals looking to make a profit and a better life.
Necron69
I grew up on Merritt Island in the 60's and 70's and the space program inspired me in my schooling and life. I hope the shuttle program has inspired some youth with the vision for the next steps in space. Regardless of our manifest failings, space exploration and travel represent fine qualities of the human spirit and give me some hope for what humanity can achieve. I know, it's pretty easy to be cynical given the sheer brutal, nastiness that we demonstrate, but I prefer to focus on the positive. That being said, the "Mission Completed" patch really hit home with me, especially the nebula in the background. It is gorgeous. The others are remarkable, the tributes to the lost astronauts are moving and I'd love to have each of these patches.
Am I not destroying my enemies when I make friends of them? --Abraham Lincoln
First they retire the SR-71 without ANY proper replacement...
Now the space shuttle (yeah.. I have known this for a while but I feel like now is the time to let my feelings out!)
What's next? they are going to retire the IIS? GPS satellites? or what!
Americans, you once amused me.. but now.. it's so.. decadent.. it's like the URSS.. depressing..
And don't come with those f22, f35 or "orion" shit.. that's all vaporware.. and no.. the Predator is NOT that cool!
As long as it's not autonomous, it's no big deal! What..? Pilots sitting in the ground and all that.. it's just a harder, better, faster and stronger RC place.
Thanks..
...because it names Enterprise among the ships. #10 runs a close second due to this fact as well. Either way, Enterprise needs to be on the final patch as it played a crucial role in the program. (and it must be honored for nerdiness sake)
How practical is it to travel to Florida to see a shuttle launch in person? It seems like most of the launches these days are delayed weeks or longer from their originally-scheduled dates. I'd like to see the last one, but obviously if it means renting a room there for a month it's not really something I could do.
"...always new atoms but always doing the same dance, remembering what the dance was yesterday." -Richard Feynman
How about showing the hind end of a dog, with its tail between its legs.
...I made a few comments about this End of an Era on my blog a few days ago. Follow the link in my signature.
My web domain.
#8 appeals to the art deco aficionado in me, and #12 is just beautiful. As others have pointed out, however, it is likely that neither of them will embroider particularly well.
Tiller's Rule: Never use a word in written form that you've only heard and never read. You will end up looking foolish.
I understand the need to retire the aging space shuttle fleet but I've always wondered .... why not just build new ones? I'm sure it would cost $Texas but it couldn't be more expensive than this constellation program they are trying to get off the ground (pun SO intended).
"For someone my age, the shuttle really *IS* space travel. I'm going to be really sad to see STS-133 land." -- Well for someone MY age, the Shuttle with its false promises of cheap access to space is what destroyed the Apollo-Saturn progression of vehicles and stagnated real manned space exploration for 30 years. Good riddance; it is time to get back to business with Constellation or some other Apollo type vehicles which will take us beyond LEO.
"For someone my age, the shuttle really *IS* space travel. I'm going to be really sad to see STS-133 land."
Reading that, I feel lucky to have grown up watching the space program when we were testing the limits of our abilities and every flight brought us closer to landing on the moon. There was a sense of adventure that's been missing since then.
On the bright side, commercial space flight is nearing the point of practicality.
The manned commercial ships are strictly suborbital affairs, and achieve a fraction of the velocity needed for orbital flight.
This is my sig.
I'm going to be really sad to see STS-133 land.
As opposed to something.... more spectacular? They've already done that a couple of times.
Have they sent anything into orbit? Have they made a trip to the ISS? Private space companies haven't even achieved what the CCCP did with the Sputnik over fifty years ago.
I had a conversation with one of the people who works at Canaveral. He said it's sad that they're about to destroy decades of work and knowledge of a community that knows how to build, maintain, and successfully launch vehicles into space. A lot of the real brains there are getting old, and if they aren't able to pass on their experiences to the new generation of spaceflight engineers, we are going to find ourselves severely behind in space travel and technology in general.
It's really a pity. The American idea of progress has turned inside out. Investment in spaceflight and the technologies to improve it is apparently is not equal to a month of spending for foreign military invasions. Not exactly a way forward if you ask me.
For a second there, I thought they were talking about a software patch. WTF? NASA is open-sourcing the shuttle???
When I realized they were talking about embroidery...boy, talk about a buzz-kill!
Offtopic, perhaps, but I hope someone will read this and have a direction I can go to search...
When I was young, in the early '80s, publicity for the shuttle and other Nasa stuff was high. I was at a museum and saw a huge rocket, and there was material on TV, though my memories of it are dim. Associated with this Nasa material there was some music. I still remember listening to it and thinking "The future! Space! Amazing!" I was maybe 4-6 years old.
I've searched for it now and again, but haven't come up with anything remotely close. Anyone know what I'm talking about? Anyone know where I can get a copy / hear it again?
-- "Oh. This guy again."
.
And for someone as old as me, "space travel" was the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs, when we put men on the moon in less than a decade. That was when NASA wasn't afraid to take risks -- yes, to put it bluntly, when we accepted that there would be some casualties.
I'm not making light of the shuttle program, but "Space travel" ... i.e., the Space Program -- is a weak shadow of those heady days. Back when I was a kid, everyone wanted to be an astronaut. That was the highest goal for a young geek like me. I actually dreamed that one day I might have at least a fractional chance of setting foot on Mars, or Titan, or Ganymede. Nowadays? Since the "Space Program" has been pared down to a safe, repeatable, predictable, Do-The-Same-Boring-Things and Haul Satellites Into Orbit again and again, no one cares.
Right over our heads are all the raw materials and resources we will need for the conceivable life of the entire human race. Copper? Gold? Iron? Even some basic Organics and aromatics? They're all out there. If we had people with the guts to do "unsafe" things, in spite of what some Nanny Stater might think, we could even encourage private exploration -- and the payoff might be astronomical (pun intended) for the first prospector to lay claim to an asteroid filled with gold, or rhodium, or some other precious metal. (And yes, it's statistically possible ... even likely; look it up.)
Bah. Most kids don't even know what "Space Travel" is. The closest they get is watching Apollo 13, assuming that they're watching special effects and a half-fictitious, dramatized story, when it truth, it was actually a lot tenser than was portrayed in the movie, especially the first 24 hours, and the discussion that led to that last "burn" to get them to earth more quickly. What that movie DID capture was the way that it felt, as I sat there as a young kid watching the TV, as Houston said over and over, "Odyssey, this is Houston, do you copy ..." I can remember how my heart went into throat while I waited for them to respond just before splashdown. But you know what? If they had died, I'd have grieved and mourned, but I was have considered it worth it. They would have died for something.
Cogito, igitur comedam pizza.
The Shuttle "Pathfinder" wasn't designed to fly either . . .
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pathfinder_(Space_Shuttle_simulator)
it was used to check clearances in places where the shuttle would be in the future.
We are Dead Stars looking back Up at the Sky
"I'm going to be really sad to see STS-133 land."
Challenger breaking up on re-entry hit me very hard. I will be happy to see it land, safely.
I will not mourn that which I never had to lose. - Unknown
Figure that Virgin Galactic and SpaceShipTwo are part of the baby steps needed to get to orbital manned commercial space flight. They are kind of like the barnstormers that flew from place to place around the country back in the infancy of manned flight, taking people into the air as a thrill.
I seem to recall reading that WhiteKnightTwo, the launch ship series for SpaceShipTwo, will also be used for launching other Earth to space vessels. I wouldn't be surprised if a version of SpaceShipTwo, with a reduced cargo load and a larger fuel supply, managed to reach LEO. (The first one would likely be a single pilot version.)
The hard part would be coming down, because the extra velocity would need to be shed without affecting the 'shuttlecock' wing configuration that made SpaceShipOne work.
Still, given Rutan's expertise, I wouldn't be surprised if there is an orbital flight not long before the commercial jumps start. (Yeah Cal Poly!)
I found it nice that the first SpaceShipTwo is named the VSS Enterprise.
and they would choose the best entry to upgrade some of the software on board the shuttle..thank god they have better mechanisms in place for that sort of thing
It never could! In order to get Nixon to sign off on the Shuttle Program, NASA promised a launch of every three weeks -- something they knew full well would never happen. While it was reusable (well, the orbiter and the boosters anyway), it really was meant to work with a space station -- that is, Skylab. But it wasn't ready in time, so we sat out of space for years.
Now we have a new station that took way longer to build than we expected, which they want to deorbit soon. Frustrating!
IMO, the US should have run a long-term successor to Apollo from the end of the Apollo Applications Program (read: Skylab + Apollo/Soyuz) with the goal of setting up a permanent base on the moon with an eye on a sucessor for Mars.
But, as when you live in a house for too long (or have a job for too long), you stop being objective and stop planning for the far future. This is how we got where we are today -- a NASA that does somethings brilliantly and others not so much.
46. The Hobo smiles, his eyes glaze over, and he burps. "Beware the man who has lived longer than the Wasteland."
I thought at least one of the patches had a cowboy riding a shuttle or at least a cowboy hat on a shuttle
This should have been modded up instead of down!
And what generation has been behind all the budget cuts since those days of adventure? When the world has become boring, see wether you voted for the guy who promised lower taxes.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
I already missed all of the Saturn V launches, now I'm probably going to miss seeing the last shuttle launch as well? I need more vacation time :P
I liked the first one a lot, but #5 was my favorite of all of them anyway - for a patch you have to keep the design more on the simple side, with less photorealism and cleaner elements.
Also, I liked seeing the major things the shuttle worked on during the years of service - Hubble and space station.
Overall it was a great patch design.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
A graphic of one hand closing a door while the other reaches through the remaining opening to switch off the lights.
Have gnu, will travel.
At this point it's necessary to mention that the Enterprise is on display at the Smithsonian Air & Space Annex at Dulles International Airport. The annex is a few miles down the road from the main terminal. In addition to Enterprise, there's also the Enola Gay, an SR71, a JSF, (F-35?) and a whole pile more. My wife said she liked it better than the Air & Space downtown.
The living have better things to do than to continue hating the dead.
OK, but I don't think six billion people would fit in the Fertile Crescent.
Oh, wait...we had explorers that had the courage to take to the stormy seas in fragile craft without accurate navigation. Unmanned space missions are good for gathering information but there might come a time when we need to get out there to make use of what we learn whether it be for science or for commercial use.
But it would suck even worse if it _didn't_ land. We've already had two shuttles that didn't. Here's praying that the remaining flights _do_ land as intended.
It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.
> I'm going to be really sad to see STS-133 land.
Me too, but nowhere near as sorry as I would if it didn't.
The living have better things to do than to continue hating the dead.
see a shuttle launch in person?
I was at Kennedy over the summer, and I was fortunate enough to be able to see likely the last time we will ever have two shuttles on platform simultaneously. However my timing down there was incompatible with seeing a launch, and I learned something from our NASA tour guide about the launches that I did not know before.
Very, very, few people are allowed to get even somewhat close to the launch. Granted, you can get close enough to feel some of the shockwave, you won't be able to get nearly as close as the media. And unless you have a special pass (which are extremely hard to get) you'll be a long ways away and you'll have to deal with insane traffic at insane times.
As much as I would love to have seen a launch, I think in the end it works out better to watch it on TV.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
it sure would be nice if mankind was a little bolder.
Don't tell slashdot - slashdot can't do anything about that problem. Tell your US representative. Tell your US Senator. Send a letter to the VP and POTUS. Contact every federal-level elected politician that represents you. The budget - and hence the missions - for NASA are dictated by congress. The NASA budget keeps getting cut because the politicians believe the American people are OK with that happening. If you are not OK with it then you owe it to yourself, your representation, and the rest of the country to say so.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
Why? Because he's right.
I almost wept.
...could be shown shaking hands, while in the background Congress votes another budget cut for NASA.
... they added the prototype: Enterprise.
But this is probably just the geek in me speaking. Then again, this is /. ;)
Take a look at the Apollo 8 patch if you want to see a good design.
Orion Project - go 6% of the speed of light on nuclear power:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Orion_(nuclear_propulsion)
Now that is space travel!
When the Space Race was basically ending, it was clear there won't be so many resources anymore for space travel. And what NASA did for the next 3 decades? Flew a spacecraft wasting almost 100 tonnes of cargo in each launch. A spacecraft that was not only a result of compromise, but properties of which weren't really utilized. Those 100 tonnes wasted in each launch meant no circular space station. No mission further on.
Heck, even Russians got sucked in and wanted to have a spacecraft with comparable capabilities for defensive balance. They actually did slightly better, getting out of it a super-heavy launcher capable of operating independently (what NASA only now does with Ares V), but the whole project bled them financially, possibly even greatly contributing to the death of Soviet Union, and the launcher died with it. If not for their shuttles...who knows, they could have been on Mars by now.
One that hath name thou can not otter
Fly the shuttle once per year until Ares is ready. Indeed they should launch it unmanned at least once for R&D purposes. As for the patch design contest. Pathetic.
an ill wind that blows no good
Wikipedia mentions that the energy required is about 60 times that to go suborbital, at least in the SpaceShipTwo entry. (Mach 3 for suborbital vs Mach 25 for orbital)
The question would be whether or not the extra fuel, and fuel handling hardware, would weigh as much as six passengers and a spare pilot, plus their life support. You would also have to consider reentry differences.
I did find a reference to SpaceShipThree. It was supposed to be an orbital ship, but it apparently has been scaled back to point to point suborbital. (London to Sydney in two hours.)
Despite its failures, the Space Shuttle did a good job of hauling hardware and people into LEO while providing workspace. Perhaps it should be considered a space motorhome, with trailer, as opposed to a space truck.
But I had a thought about SpaceShipTwo. As configured, it should reach the one hundred kilometer 'limit' of space while hitting Mach 3. At that point it doesn't have to overcome much wind resistance because it is in space. Lacking the wind resistance barrier, what would it take to go to Mach 25, assuming its peak of flight velocity is zero or near that? (It has been a few decades since I've worked any physics problems.)