Shuttle ‘go’ for April 5th launch

Seems there were some technical issues that threatened a delay of the launch.  Normally I’m all over the news on this stuff but I’ve slacked a bit.  I am happy though that we’ll get to see a launch in less than a week.

Here are several articles on STS-131

From NASA’s website:

Discovery will carry a multi-purpose logistics module filled with science racks for the laboratories aboard the station. The mission has three planned spacewalks, with work to include replacing an ammonia tank assembly, retrieving a Japanese experiment from the station’s exterior, and switching out a rate gyro assembly on the S0 segment of the station’s truss structure.

STS-131 will be the 33rd shuttle mission to the station.

We’re behind you Discovery!

Space: The Final Frontier

No truer words can ever be spoken.  The depths of the mind are indeed complex but not tangible.  Our oceans floors hold many secrets about life and the history of our planet.  Space is, for all intensive purposes, infinite.  This isn’t technically true, to our knowledge.  We estimate the true size of the Universe to be 93 Billion Light Years.   So vast, in fact, that light from one side will never reach the other.  This is why it is the pinnacle of exploration.

Eventually, one day, our destiny will lie somewhere in space.  Perhaps another planetary body in this solar system or even another star system.  That is, if we don’t blow ourselves up or suffer a cataclysmic set back.

The recent White House budget leaves me both concerned and yet I see an opportunity to be optimistic.  I’ve been reading forums to get people’s takes on this.  Mind you this is coming from people who work in the industry to plain people like myself.  It is inevitable that politics gets head-firsted into the mix.  I made that slang up.  Nice eh?  I guess there is no way around it but the degree of  “This was Bush’s fault!”; “This was Griffin’s fault”; “Obama sux!” is just a little much.

I try my damnedest to take a middle road approach.  I want science.  I want exploration.  I want a manned flight program (also termed HSF for Human Space Flight).  At the moment we have it with Shuttle.  In a few short months, it will be done and gone.  What happens after that?  We’re grounded, at least humans are.

Private companies are really getting into the mix of things which does excite me.  Thing is, they’re a ways off from manned flight.  It will happen, just not quite soon as we’d like.

Constellation is dead.  I’m sad and yet I can understand this move.  Some claim to have had the insight or ESP enough to know it was doomed from day one.  I think having a pessimistic attitude isn’t very healthy.  I don’t work in the industry, I follow it from a few rows back.  I can say that my interest is important, not as a single entity but gathered with the combined interest of persons just like myself.  Lack of public interest will kill a program deader than dead.  Apollo anyone?

So, I thought about the cancellation of that program and realized, ok, maybe this isn’t as bad as it seems.  I’m still icky feeling about not having the ability to put humans up but lets think this out.  The downfall of Constellation was reaching back to the past to sort of re-use older technologies or at least model from them.  What we need are newer technologies that are laced with our learnings of the past.

I think the biggest technological advance we need is in propulsion.  Chemical rockets are dandy at getting heavy vehicles off the ground and into space but once in space you need something else.  Something that’s less cumbersome, less prone to failure and has some oomph!  These technologies should be researched to make Moon and Mars missions faster.  Transit time to Mars is MONTHS.  With new propulsion you could get it down to weeks; or so I’ve heard.

So, new technologies and private companies.  I think I actually like the sound of that.  Will they deliver? The talk is there, the walk is yet to come.

More notes on the budget are promised robotics and planetary missions.  This is very exciting to me.  Rovers are great tools for science!  Just look at Spirit and Opportunity; they vastly outlived their planned mission time.  If we had a mission going up every other month, I’d be stoked.

A final note about canceling the Moon program.  Listen, we’ve been there before.  Yes, actual people walked on the actual Moon.  That program was initially a race; a race we would win.  After that, you had a group of giddy scientists drooling over the prospect of getting some precious samples back.  That came later and Apollo XVII was the final Moon-shot.  We never spent more than a couple of days there.  When we go back, we need to plan on STAYING for a length of time.  Weeks, not days.

China wants to go there.  Let them go, plant their flag and then come back.  It’s a great thing for a country.  I’d applaud them for it.  As the saying goes “been there, done that”.  It’s time we went a step ahead.  That way when countries are landing and planting their flags, we can wave at them from our cozy Moon habitats.  From that point we can build on and then eyeball Mars or even astreriods.

So, finally, it’s bittersweet for me.  I wanted to see Constellation work but ultimately I want to see anything work.  I’ll hold on the promise of some serious R&D and science missions.  I’ll hold on to private companies keeping us in orbit too.  It’s a big time shake up of things.  Perhaps it was needed.

Obama says we need to get young people into science and math.  I couldn’t agree more.  If he truly means this then he needs to deliver on this budget.  NASA has inspired generations of people.  Let’s keep it that way.

If this flops as a dud and our space program is left floundering for years, I’ll be one mad space cadet. >:o

How big is space?

Watch the video.  That is all.

I had a big write up on this but why bother?  The video is enough as it is!

Ares I-X is history

The first flight of a new space flight system is in the books.  The first in nearly thirty years.  I say it’s history because no matter what, it is.

If this is the only Ares that ever flies, then it’s something to remember and cherish.  Every time we, as humans, attempt to push the outer limit, it’s something to remember.  A lot of hard dedicated work went into this machine.

If this does end up being the new flight system for our American Astronauts then we were there to witness the birth of a new era.

I read off color and idiotic comments left and right on the test flight.  It really makes me sad.  I can crack a joke as well as the next guy.  The thing looks like a giant toothpick or even a Qtip.  I can laugh at that, it’s comical.

I’m not really sure what people were expecting from a “test” of an “experimental” flight system but it seems that we expect too much.  The common person sees a two minute powered flight that costs him 400 million tax dollars.  Cry me a river.

The savvy person sees beyond that.  We, yes I’m savvy, see the future of mankind.  We see the hopes and dreams of our children.  Putting man into space almost defies definition.  It’s something that invokes a sense of wonder in some people.  Sure, I’m a little biased (ok a LOT).

We, as a culture, only seem to care when a rocket blows up and kills people.   We care little about the titanic effort that gets our men and women into space in the first place.

So, with Ares we will have to sit and wait.  The current White House Administration is going to play a large role in what happens.  I only hope that petty politics do not cloud anything.  Bush put forth the mandate to get to the Moon and retire the shuttle.  So, if something gets canceled out of spite, I’ll be one ill space cadet!

Let me end with a paraphrase from Carl Sagan.

The Earth is the shore of the cosmic ocean.  We’ve waded a ways out and the water seems inviting.

So what are we waiting for?

STS-126

Yes!  Well I don’t think you can get tickets to this particular launch but there is viewing all up and down the Indian River.  Even though I’ve never SEEN one go up I can assure you that if you’re anywhere in the area; you’ll know one is going up.  This launch will be shortly after nightfall and those are particularly dazzling.  I like day launches as you can see the vehicle a lot better but any successful launch is a good one.

That’s right, one week from today! W00t! I love launch day preparation.

Master of the Universe

Ok, well not really but…

Hubble Servicing Mission

Does anyone remember when Hubble was launched?  Remember how we all waited to see those brilliant images come down?  As they started to beam down to earth we all looked at each other thinking “that’s good, right?”  Those in the know immediately knew it wasn’t right.  Hubble was near-sighted.  The most expensive telescope ever built didn’t work.

Two years later a daring plan was set into motion to fix hubble.  Essentially it would be given glasses and other hardware would be upgraded as well (solar panels, gyros, etc).   Astronauts worked feverishly on Hubble until all the repairs were made.  Would they work?  Could NASA redeem itself?

The answer is a resounding “yes”.  Not only redemption but triumph.  As the new images came in, it was clear the mission was a success and our view on the Universe would never be the same again.  Chances are that you’ve seen a photo taken by Hubble.  To be more clear, if you’ve seen a picture of space in the last 15 years, it’s a good chance Hubble took it.  Sure there are scopes that are larger and gather more light but Hubble has the advantage.  It doesn’t put up with atmosphere.  No rainy days, cloudy days and it’s always night time in space.  Well to a degree it is.

NASA has serviced the Hubble a couple of times since that first servicing.  Upgrades to equipment, new cameras, better cameras and more sensitive instruments to bolster it’s scientific contribution even more.

Later this year NASA will service the Hubble one final time.  The telescope has been a workhorse for so many years and taken some of the most stunning images of the Cosmos known to man.  I’d love to be there to see the shuttle go up.  Might still happen but I won’t set my heart on it.

http://hubblesite.org/gallery/

R U SIRIOUS?

What, something like 1 person is born every few seconds?  Right?  So why is —->>>>”"THIS“”<<<<—- such a honking huge deal?  Why? Really, tell me why!  I know the birth of a child is a great thing and the miracle of life.  I have two of my own.

Oh well, I suppose people wonder why I’m infatuated with rockets.  However, I can explain in great detail my reasons for that!  I can’t even think of a reason why I’d be so enthralled about the birth of child by a woman I’ve never met, never will meet or really care to meet.

Why am I so infatuated about the infataution?  I guess I can’t understand it.  I’ll give a list of reasons on why I’m into the space program:

1. Showcases mankinds ability to overcome immense obstacles
2. Encourages innovation to achieve a common goal
3. Several common technologies today were a result of research concerning space program(s) [NASA Spinoff]

There that’s a fairly broad couple of reasons.  Particularly spinoffs.  Something that is actually useful for the everyday person.

*sigh*

Everyone has their own thing but really, leave the poor woman alone.

Brainy Smurf

I like science.  I love science.  It doesn’t make the world go ’round, it explains why the world goes ’round.  Without it we’d still be in caves.  We’re the only species to fully grasp it and it’s importance.  Even still we haven’t fully grasped everything and I think some things we won’t or some things weren’t meant to be grasped.

Things don’t exist unless observed.  So, we observe the universe.  Would it exist without us?  Is the universe alive and wanting to see what it looks like?  Are we the mirror the universe looks into?

Can we travel through time?  In Back to the Future, Marty McFly nearly erased his existence after disrupting his parents meeting.  In a real world scenario, since the future already exists, doesn’t that mean you basically can’t fail?  Think about it.  You go back in time to kill your Great Grandfather.  You get there and tell him he’s done for.  You pull the gun out and pull the trigger.  Jammed!  It won’t fire!  So you find a large blunt object and lunge at him, you trip and fall.  Every effort you make at his demise is thwarted by some…thing.  Well the trip sprained your ankle and bought time for him to call the police.  You, the crazed madman, gets carted away and your ancestor lives on.  You explain to him who you are and that you were only proving a science experiment.  He posts bail and you zip off to the future with your findings.

This randomness brought to you by the letter N for Nerd.
And the number 9 because it’s king of the single digit numbers.

Super week

To kick it off (pun!) the Giants won the superbowl which is great because I love underdogs.  Today not much is going on but tomorrow is Super Tuesday where something on the order or 25 states are holding primaries for the next President.  That’s pretty cool.  And of course, the best thing this week (crosses fingers) is the launch of Atlantis.

When you’re a huge space/science buff you learn to expect delays in launch these incredibly complex machines.  The orbiter, being the most complex, needs extra attention when problems arise.  This case was a faulty fuel sensor in the large orange tank.  While there are multiple redundant systems, they will not launch if they know one is failing.  The purpose is that once in flight, you can have a failure and have backups.  If you launch with a failure and have a failure in flight you might be left with one system and no backup.  Another failure would be a “bad day” as they call it.  If the fuel sensors failed or sent incorrect data for instance, the engines might be shut off prematurely.  That’s a guaranteed bad day.  Another scenario might have the engines no shutting down properly.  The pumps spin at 36,000rpm inside those things.  I hear if they spin without fuel the damage can be catastrophic.  I’ll take their word.

After all the work is done to make these vehicles flight ready, after every screw, strap, bolt, pump, lever, knob, button, system, wire, cable, etc, is checked, there is only one thing left to do; pray.  Pray that all those items you check do not fail.  Once the vehicle is in flight, you can’t pull it over.  There is no pitstop and nothing on this planet can catch up with it short of another orbiter or a few other launch vehicles that take weeks of preparation to make flight ready.

No, space flight is not routine.  It will not be for a long time.  The guys that want tourists in space are visionaries and pioneers but people will die.  I guarantee it.  Everything is a calculated risk and you have money and lives on the line.  I doubt the high rollers in Vegas could stomach the intensity of saying “there is a 5% chance we’ll lose the crew if X happens but it’s better than the initial 7% so it’s within the acceptable limit”.

Godspeed!

[L]