astronomy & space stuff
- Thread starter linuxgeek
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The Mutt
Cunnilingus Ergo Sum
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Awesome!
I saw a night launch of Atlantis back in November, 1990. I was in Orlando, about 100 miles away. It lit the sky bright orange and the tail of flame was as big as my thumb. What was really cool was that when I went outside to watch, there were about a half dozen people standing in the parking lot chatting. They had no idea what was coming. When the sky lit up they freaked out. Hee.
I saw a night launch of Atlantis back in November, 1990. I was in Orlando, about 100 miles away. It lit the sky bright orange and the tail of flame was as big as my thumb. What was really cool was that when I went outside to watch, there were about a half dozen people standing in the parking lot chatting. They had no idea what was coming. When the sky lit up they freaked out. Hee.
Lost Cause
It's a wrap!
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Fagin
little fishie
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garbage can
North by Northeast
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Will this solar activity help global warming.... I like global warming, especially in Dec, Jan and Feb.linuxgeek said:
Fagin
little fishie
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Earth's Moon Destined to Disintegrate
By David Powell
Special to SPACE.com
posted: 22 January 2007
06:04 am ET
The Sun is midway through its stable hydrogen burning phase known as the main sequence. But when the Sun enters the red giant phase in around 5 billion years things are going to get a lot rougher in the Earth-Moon system.
During the red giant phase the Sun will swell until its distended atmosphere reaches out to envelop the Earth and Moon, which will both begin to be affected by gas drag—the space through which they orbit will contain more molecules.
The Moon is now moving away from Earth and by then will be in an orbit that's about 40 percent larger than today. It will be the first to warp under the Sun’s influence.
“The Moon's actual path is a wiggly line around the Sun, with it moving faster when it is slightly farther out (at full Moon) and more slowly when it is slightly closer (at new Moon),” said Lee Anne Willson of Iowa State University. “So the gas drag is more effective at the farther part of the orbit and this will put the Moon into an orbit where the new Moon is closer to Earth than the full Moon.”
Willson's idea about the Moon's demise, explained recently to SPACE.com, is an unpublished byproduct of her research into Earth's fate in the face of an expanding Sun.
Moving away
Today, the Moon is on average 239,000 miles (385,000 kilometres) away and has reached this point after a long and dramatic journey.
Earth’s Moon was born around 4.5 billion years ago in a titanic collision between our planet and a Mars-sized sibling, according to the leading theory. The enormous impact threw debris into orbit around the young Earth and from this maelstrom the Moon coalesced.
For the last few billion years the Moon’s gravity has been raising tides in Earth’s oceanswhich the fast spinning Earth attempts to drag ahead of the sluggishly orbiting Moon. The result is that the Moon is being pushed away from Earth by 1.6 inches (4 centimeters) per year and our planet’s rotation is slowing.
If left unabated the Moon would continue in its retreat until it would take bout 47 days to orbit the Earth. Both Earth and Moon would then keep the same faces permanently turned toward one another as Earth’s spin would also have slowed to one rotation every 47 days.
Solar influence
The Sun’s mutation into a red giant provides a huge stumbling block to the Moon’s getaway and is likely to ensure the Moon ends its days the way it began; as a ring of Earth-girdling debris.
“The density and temperature both increase rapidly near the apparent surface (photosphere) of the future giant Sun,” Willson explained. As the Earth and Moon near this blistering hot region, the drag caused by the Sun's extended atmosphere will cause the Moon's orbit to decay. The Moon will swing ever closer to Earth until it reaches a point 11,470 miles (18,470 kilometers) above our planet, a point termed the Roche limit.
“Reaching the Roche limit means that the gravity holding it [the Moon] together is weaker than the tidal forces acting to pull it apart,” Willson said.
The Moon will be torn to pieces and every crater, mountain, valley, footprint and flag will be scattered to form a spectacular 23,000-mile-diameter (37,000-kilometer) Saturn-like ring of debris above Earth’s equator. The new rings will be short-lived. Theory dictates they'll eventually rain down onto Earth’s surface.
“Particles of different masses will have different survival times; the smaller particles will be removed first, and the biggest ones last. Most of the ring particles would be gone by the time the Earth reaches the stellar photosphere,” Willson said.
If the Sun’s photosphere reaches Earth, our planet too will experience drag and spiral into the Sun to be incinerated.
Possible out
There are possible natural alternatives, however.
If the Sun as a red giant sloughs off enough material before Earth evaporates, our planet will be revealed from its stellar cocoon in a Moon-less guise. Earth, robbed of its companion, would undertake a lonely vigil as the Sun turns eventually into a stellar corpse called a white dwarf Sun, fading to black over the ensuing trillions of years.
Alternatively, if the swelling Sun loses 20 percent of its mass prior to it reaching our vicinity, both Earth and Moon could be spared incineration and remain together facing each other for eternity. The actual outcome remains a theoretical uncertainty because no red giant star has been observed during this crucial phase.
source
*****
Let's sound the panic alarm.
By David Powell
Special to SPACE.com
posted: 22 January 2007
06:04 am ET
The Sun is midway through its stable hydrogen burning phase known as the main sequence. But when the Sun enters the red giant phase in around 5 billion years things are going to get a lot rougher in the Earth-Moon system.
During the red giant phase the Sun will swell until its distended atmosphere reaches out to envelop the Earth and Moon, which will both begin to be affected by gas drag—the space through which they orbit will contain more molecules.
The Moon is now moving away from Earth and by then will be in an orbit that's about 40 percent larger than today. It will be the first to warp under the Sun’s influence.
“The Moon's actual path is a wiggly line around the Sun, with it moving faster when it is slightly farther out (at full Moon) and more slowly when it is slightly closer (at new Moon),” said Lee Anne Willson of Iowa State University. “So the gas drag is more effective at the farther part of the orbit and this will put the Moon into an orbit where the new Moon is closer to Earth than the full Moon.”
Willson's idea about the Moon's demise, explained recently to SPACE.com, is an unpublished byproduct of her research into Earth's fate in the face of an expanding Sun.
Moving away
Today, the Moon is on average 239,000 miles (385,000 kilometres) away and has reached this point after a long and dramatic journey.
Earth’s Moon was born around 4.5 billion years ago in a titanic collision between our planet and a Mars-sized sibling, according to the leading theory. The enormous impact threw debris into orbit around the young Earth and from this maelstrom the Moon coalesced.
For the last few billion years the Moon’s gravity has been raising tides in Earth’s oceanswhich the fast spinning Earth attempts to drag ahead of the sluggishly orbiting Moon. The result is that the Moon is being pushed away from Earth by 1.6 inches (4 centimeters) per year and our planet’s rotation is slowing.
If left unabated the Moon would continue in its retreat until it would take bout 47 days to orbit the Earth. Both Earth and Moon would then keep the same faces permanently turned toward one another as Earth’s spin would also have slowed to one rotation every 47 days.
Solar influence
The Sun’s mutation into a red giant provides a huge stumbling block to the Moon’s getaway and is likely to ensure the Moon ends its days the way it began; as a ring of Earth-girdling debris.
“The density and temperature both increase rapidly near the apparent surface (photosphere) of the future giant Sun,” Willson explained. As the Earth and Moon near this blistering hot region, the drag caused by the Sun's extended atmosphere will cause the Moon's orbit to decay. The Moon will swing ever closer to Earth until it reaches a point 11,470 miles (18,470 kilometers) above our planet, a point termed the Roche limit.
“Reaching the Roche limit means that the gravity holding it [the Moon] together is weaker than the tidal forces acting to pull it apart,” Willson said.
The Moon will be torn to pieces and every crater, mountain, valley, footprint and flag will be scattered to form a spectacular 23,000-mile-diameter (37,000-kilometer) Saturn-like ring of debris above Earth’s equator. The new rings will be short-lived. Theory dictates they'll eventually rain down onto Earth’s surface.
“Particles of different masses will have different survival times; the smaller particles will be removed first, and the biggest ones last. Most of the ring particles would be gone by the time the Earth reaches the stellar photosphere,” Willson said.
If the Sun’s photosphere reaches Earth, our planet too will experience drag and spiral into the Sun to be incinerated.
Possible out
There are possible natural alternatives, however.
If the Sun as a red giant sloughs off enough material before Earth evaporates, our planet will be revealed from its stellar cocoon in a Moon-less guise. Earth, robbed of its companion, would undertake a lonely vigil as the Sun turns eventually into a stellar corpse called a white dwarf Sun, fading to black over the ensuing trillions of years.
Alternatively, if the swelling Sun loses 20 percent of its mass prior to it reaching our vicinity, both Earth and Moon could be spared incineration and remain together facing each other for eternity. The actual outcome remains a theoretical uncertainty because no red giant star has been observed during this crucial phase.
source
*****
Let's sound the panic alarm.
Last edited:
Fagin
little fishie
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Report Urges Reinvestment in Earth Observation Missions
By Brian Berger
Space News Staff Writer
House Science and Technology Committee Chairman Bart Gordon (D-Tenn.) applauded a new National Academy of Sciences report urging the U.S. government to fund 17 Earth-observing satellite missions between 2010 and 2020 in order to rebuild the nation’s aging network of environmental spacecraft.
Without the reinvestment, the report warns, the number of U.S. satellites monitoring the Earth’s climate could drop from 29 today to seven by 2017.
Gordon said the findings should come as no surprise to anyone who has paid attention to the budget cuts NASA’s Earth science program has sustained since 2000 and the disruption on National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) observation programs caused by cost overruns on the nation’s next-generation weather satellite systems.
Gordon said his committee would be “watching closely” to see whether the 2008 budget request the White House puts forward in February is consistent with the recommendations in the report, “Earth Science and Applications from Space: National Imperatives for the Next Decade and Beyond,” a 10-year-plan for U.S. Earth science missions known as a decadal survey, which can be found here. The first-of-its-kind assessment was released by the National Academy of Sciences Jan. 15 at the American Meteorological Society’s annual meeting in San Antonio.
“The decadal survey recommends a path forward that restores U.S. leadership in Earth science and avoids potential collapse of our system of Earth science satellites,” said Richard Anthes, co-chairman of the two-year-study and newly elected president of the American Meteorological Society.
Anthes told reporters Jan. 15 that NASA’s investment in Earth science, measured in constant dollars, has dropped from $2 billion in 2002 to $1.5 billion today.
To fund the missions proposed in the report, NASA would have to go back to spending $2 billion a year on Earth science while NOAA would have to maintain a steady $1 billion annual investment in satellites and instruments that monitor Earth’s climate.
Two of the proposed missions identified in the report would be undertaken by NOAA. The remaining 15 would be NASA’s responsibility.
Half of the proposed missions, the report estimates, could be accomplished for $300 million or less with none costing more than $800 million in today’s dollars.
The first of the new missions proposed that is not already in NASA’s or NOAA’s pipeline is DESDynI, which stands for Deformation, Ecosystem Structure and Dynamics of Ice. Anthes said DESDynI would cost an estimated $700 million and be designed to fly a Ka-band interferometric synthetic aperture radar instrument and laser altimeter in a sun-synchronous low Earth orbit.
Another early mission, the Climate Absolute Radiance and Refractivity Observatory, or Clarreo, would be a joint effort of NASA and NOAA, with NASA covering the bulk of the project’s $265 million price tag.
The most expensive of the proposed missions is the ACE (Aerosol/Clouds/Ecosystem) mission. According to the National Academy of Sciences report, the satellite for that $800 million mission would be equipped with four instruments. The launch would take place between 2013 and 2016 to help reduce uncertainties in predictions about global climate change.
NASA made a robust investment in environmental satellites in the 1990s, building an Earth Observing System that was completed in 2004 with the launch of the multiple-instrument Aura satellite. The three satellites in the system were complemented by the launch of several smaller, more focused satellites, including Cloudsat and Calipso, which launched as a pair in early 2006.
Thanks to that robust investment — as well as launch delays and satellites lasting longer than expected — the United States has an unprecedented number of environmental spacecraft and instruments currently in orbit: 29 operating satellites and 122 instruments, according to the report.
But “a great fraction” of those Earth-observation capabilities are expected to go dark over the next few years, Anthes said. The report forecasts a 40 percent decline in the number of working sensors and instruments on orbit “given that most satellites in NASA’s current fleet are well past their nominal lifetimes.”
NASA has a small number of new missions in development, including the single-instrument Orbiting Carbon Observatory, the Ocean Surface Topography Mission, and a greenhouse gas-monitoring satellite dubbed Glory. All three are slated to launch in 2008, according to NASA Goddard Space Flight Center’s Earth Observing System Web site.
NASA also has in development for a 2009 or 2010 launch a multi-instrument satellite designed to serve as a bridge between the first round of Earth Observing System missions and the launch of the National Polar-Orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS) next decade. NASA Administrator Mike Griffin testified before the House Science and Technology Committee last June that the NPOESS Preparatory Mission would help ensure the continuous collection of certain Earth Observing Systems measurements and provide flight validation of some key NPOESS sensors, including the behind-schedule Visible/Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite.
The NPOESS program was restructured in July when its projected cost soared from $6.8 billion to more than $11 billion. As part of the restructuring, several key climate, environmental and weather observation capabilities important to scientists were dropped from NPOESS. The sensors that are still part of the NPOESS plan, the report says, “are generally less capable than their Earth Observing System counterparts.”
The report recommends adding capabilities back to NPOESS or finding a way to obtain them by other means. In addition to laying out a phased sequence of new missions from 2010 to 2020, the report urges NASA to take a number of more immediate steps, among them committing to launching a Landsat 7 no later than 2011 and launching the long-planned Global Precipitation Measurement mission not later than 2012.
The report also calls for NASA to complete the Geosynchronous Imaging Fourier Transform Spectrometer and find a ride for it. The instrument was being built for an experimental weather satellite called Earth Observer-3, a satellite that lost its U.S. Air Force-sponsored launch reservation amid budget uncertainties and subsequently was canceled.
source
I agree with the exception that it should be more.
By Brian Berger
Space News Staff Writer
House Science and Technology Committee Chairman Bart Gordon (D-Tenn.) applauded a new National Academy of Sciences report urging the U.S. government to fund 17 Earth-observing satellite missions between 2010 and 2020 in order to rebuild the nation’s aging network of environmental spacecraft.
Without the reinvestment, the report warns, the number of U.S. satellites monitoring the Earth’s climate could drop from 29 today to seven by 2017.
Gordon said the findings should come as no surprise to anyone who has paid attention to the budget cuts NASA’s Earth science program has sustained since 2000 and the disruption on National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) observation programs caused by cost overruns on the nation’s next-generation weather satellite systems.
Gordon said his committee would be “watching closely” to see whether the 2008 budget request the White House puts forward in February is consistent with the recommendations in the report, “Earth Science and Applications from Space: National Imperatives for the Next Decade and Beyond,” a 10-year-plan for U.S. Earth science missions known as a decadal survey, which can be found here. The first-of-its-kind assessment was released by the National Academy of Sciences Jan. 15 at the American Meteorological Society’s annual meeting in San Antonio.
“The decadal survey recommends a path forward that restores U.S. leadership in Earth science and avoids potential collapse of our system of Earth science satellites,” said Richard Anthes, co-chairman of the two-year-study and newly elected president of the American Meteorological Society.
Anthes told reporters Jan. 15 that NASA’s investment in Earth science, measured in constant dollars, has dropped from $2 billion in 2002 to $1.5 billion today.
To fund the missions proposed in the report, NASA would have to go back to spending $2 billion a year on Earth science while NOAA would have to maintain a steady $1 billion annual investment in satellites and instruments that monitor Earth’s climate.
Two of the proposed missions identified in the report would be undertaken by NOAA. The remaining 15 would be NASA’s responsibility.
Half of the proposed missions, the report estimates, could be accomplished for $300 million or less with none costing more than $800 million in today’s dollars.
The first of the new missions proposed that is not already in NASA’s or NOAA’s pipeline is DESDynI, which stands for Deformation, Ecosystem Structure and Dynamics of Ice. Anthes said DESDynI would cost an estimated $700 million and be designed to fly a Ka-band interferometric synthetic aperture radar instrument and laser altimeter in a sun-synchronous low Earth orbit.
Another early mission, the Climate Absolute Radiance and Refractivity Observatory, or Clarreo, would be a joint effort of NASA and NOAA, with NASA covering the bulk of the project’s $265 million price tag.
The most expensive of the proposed missions is the ACE (Aerosol/Clouds/Ecosystem) mission. According to the National Academy of Sciences report, the satellite for that $800 million mission would be equipped with four instruments. The launch would take place between 2013 and 2016 to help reduce uncertainties in predictions about global climate change.
NASA made a robust investment in environmental satellites in the 1990s, building an Earth Observing System that was completed in 2004 with the launch of the multiple-instrument Aura satellite. The three satellites in the system were complemented by the launch of several smaller, more focused satellites, including Cloudsat and Calipso, which launched as a pair in early 2006.
Thanks to that robust investment — as well as launch delays and satellites lasting longer than expected — the United States has an unprecedented number of environmental spacecraft and instruments currently in orbit: 29 operating satellites and 122 instruments, according to the report.
But “a great fraction” of those Earth-observation capabilities are expected to go dark over the next few years, Anthes said. The report forecasts a 40 percent decline in the number of working sensors and instruments on orbit “given that most satellites in NASA’s current fleet are well past their nominal lifetimes.”
NASA has a small number of new missions in development, including the single-instrument Orbiting Carbon Observatory, the Ocean Surface Topography Mission, and a greenhouse gas-monitoring satellite dubbed Glory. All three are slated to launch in 2008, according to NASA Goddard Space Flight Center’s Earth Observing System Web site.
NASA also has in development for a 2009 or 2010 launch a multi-instrument satellite designed to serve as a bridge between the first round of Earth Observing System missions and the launch of the National Polar-Orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS) next decade. NASA Administrator Mike Griffin testified before the House Science and Technology Committee last June that the NPOESS Preparatory Mission would help ensure the continuous collection of certain Earth Observing Systems measurements and provide flight validation of some key NPOESS sensors, including the behind-schedule Visible/Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite.
The NPOESS program was restructured in July when its projected cost soared from $6.8 billion to more than $11 billion. As part of the restructuring, several key climate, environmental and weather observation capabilities important to scientists were dropped from NPOESS. The sensors that are still part of the NPOESS plan, the report says, “are generally less capable than their Earth Observing System counterparts.”
The report recommends adding capabilities back to NPOESS or finding a way to obtain them by other means. In addition to laying out a phased sequence of new missions from 2010 to 2020, the report urges NASA to take a number of more immediate steps, among them committing to launching a Landsat 7 no later than 2011 and launching the long-planned Global Precipitation Measurement mission not later than 2012.
The report also calls for NASA to complete the Geosynchronous Imaging Fourier Transform Spectrometer and find a ride for it. The instrument was being built for an experimental weather satellite called Earth Observer-3, a satellite that lost its U.S. Air Force-sponsored launch reservation amid budget uncertainties and subsequently was canceled.
source
I agree with the exception that it should be more.
Lost Cause
It's a wrap!
- Joined
- Oct 7, 2001
- Posts
- 30,949
As long as they establish a baseline first.......
I'm sick of them turning on a new instrument and claiming this or that observed is new and our fault because we're so bad to the earth..
They have no fucking idea how long anything has existed or is a natural occurance until they have a solid baseline of data that is reliable and not extrapolation....
http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories/images/globalwarming5.gif
I'm sick of them turning on a new instrument and claiming this or that observed is new and our fault because we're so bad to the earth..
They have no fucking idea how long anything has existed or is a natural occurance until they have a solid baseline of data that is reliable and not extrapolation....
http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories/images/globalwarming5.gif
Fagin
little fishie
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MISSION UPDATE
SpaceX Falcon 1 Rocket's Second Launch Delayed
For 4:00 p.m. EST Friday, January 19, 2007
The El Segundo, California-based firm Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) delayed its second demonstration launch of its Falcon 1 rocket from a planned Jan. 22 liftoff to no earlier than mid-February.
SpaceX chief Elon Musk said in a status update posted to his firm's Web site that the delay stemmed from concerns about a thrust vector control pitch actuator on the Falcon 1 booster's second stage. The spaceflight will be staged from SpaceX's Pacific Ocean-based pad on the Kwajalein Atoll, SpaceX officials said.
In an earlier update, Musk said the planned space shot was targeted for liftoff as early as Jan. 21, then shifted to a Jan. 22 liftoff before pushing to mid-February.
Gywnne Shotwell, SpaceX's vice president for business development, told SPACE.com that the flight's next launch window opens on Feb. 18.
SpaceX's first Falcon 1 launch ended just after liftoff when a fuel leak and fire -- stemming from the corrosion of a small aluminum nut -- leading to an engine shutdown 34 seconds after liftoff. Since then, Space X officials have made a series of improvments to avoid the corrosion issue and instituted new protocols to limit the Falcon 1 rocket's exposure to the corroding effects of salt water spray at its oceanside launch site, SpaceX officials said, adding that additional unrelated upgrades have also been performed.
SpaceX's second Falcon 1 launch is a demonstration flight for the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which has contracted the firm to loft its TacSat-1 later this year. A pair of experimental NASA payloads, including a low-cost satellite communications tranceiver and an autonomous flight safety system, will launch aboard the Falcon 1's next flight, Shotwell said.
TacSat-1 is slated to launch this summer, with a third Falcon 1 booster is slated to launch a Malaysian satellite near the end of 2007, SpaceX officials said.
* Falcon 1 Failure Traced to a Busted Nut
* Fuel Leak and Fire Led to Falcon 1 Rocket Failure, SpaceX Says
* SpaceX's Inaugural Falcon 1 Rocket Lost Just After Launch
Tariq Malik, Staff Writer for SPACE.com.
http://www.space.com/images/falcon1_drawing_03.jpg
source
*****
not a very good launch record
SpaceX Falcon 1 Rocket's Second Launch Delayed
For 4:00 p.m. EST Friday, January 19, 2007
The El Segundo, California-based firm Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) delayed its second demonstration launch of its Falcon 1 rocket from a planned Jan. 22 liftoff to no earlier than mid-February.
SpaceX chief Elon Musk said in a status update posted to his firm's Web site that the delay stemmed from concerns about a thrust vector control pitch actuator on the Falcon 1 booster's second stage. The spaceflight will be staged from SpaceX's Pacific Ocean-based pad on the Kwajalein Atoll, SpaceX officials said.
In an earlier update, Musk said the planned space shot was targeted for liftoff as early as Jan. 21, then shifted to a Jan. 22 liftoff before pushing to mid-February.
Gywnne Shotwell, SpaceX's vice president for business development, told SPACE.com that the flight's next launch window opens on Feb. 18.
SpaceX's first Falcon 1 launch ended just after liftoff when a fuel leak and fire -- stemming from the corrosion of a small aluminum nut -- leading to an engine shutdown 34 seconds after liftoff. Since then, Space X officials have made a series of improvments to avoid the corrosion issue and instituted new protocols to limit the Falcon 1 rocket's exposure to the corroding effects of salt water spray at its oceanside launch site, SpaceX officials said, adding that additional unrelated upgrades have also been performed.
SpaceX's second Falcon 1 launch is a demonstration flight for the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which has contracted the firm to loft its TacSat-1 later this year. A pair of experimental NASA payloads, including a low-cost satellite communications tranceiver and an autonomous flight safety system, will launch aboard the Falcon 1's next flight, Shotwell said.
TacSat-1 is slated to launch this summer, with a third Falcon 1 booster is slated to launch a Malaysian satellite near the end of 2007, SpaceX officials said.
* Falcon 1 Failure Traced to a Busted Nut
* Fuel Leak and Fire Led to Falcon 1 Rocket Failure, SpaceX Says
* SpaceX's Inaugural Falcon 1 Rocket Lost Just After Launch
Tariq Malik, Staff Writer for SPACE.com.
http://www.space.com/images/falcon1_drawing_03.jpg
source
*****
not a very good launch record
Last edited:
Fagin
little fishie
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but, but, but it's warmer than it was in 1850Lost Cause said:
but, but, but 1850 marked the end of the Little Ice Age
but, but, but Man-made global warming caused the end of the Little Ice Age
quit smoking crack
Good Science based on Science not emotion please
Lost Cause
It's a wrap!
- Joined
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Damn.......
It's the private industry that will change the space program for the better....NASA must be made to think outside of their narrow box.
http://blog.b92.net/system/files/images/SpaceShip+One_0.preview.jpg
It's the private industry that will change the space program for the better....NASA must be made to think outside of their narrow box.
http://blog.b92.net/system/files/images/SpaceShip+One_0.preview.jpg
Lost Cause
It's a wrap!
- Joined
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- Posts
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Lost Cause
It's a wrap!
- Joined
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- Posts
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Shameless plug~
http://www.xprizecup.com/
http://www******.com/xprizecup/
“Our goals are completely parallel,” Murphy said of the foundation and NASA. “We want NASA to make things possible, and we, space industry, want to make things profitable.”
According to draft rules for the lunar lander contest, competitors will be challenged to build a vehicle capable of launching vertically, travel a distance of 328 to 656 feet (100 to 200 meters) horizontally, and then land at a designated site. A return trip would then occur between 5 minutes and 30 minutes later.
The contest is expected to be divided into two levels, one for flat terrain, and the other to resemble the lunar surface – with other cash prize amounts based on level difficulty and finish results.
For Level 1 contests, vehicles must fly higher than 328 feet (100 meters) for about 90 seconds and land on flat terrain no more than 10 meters from a target. Level 2 competitions will feature the mock lunar surface and a minimum flight time of 180 seconds, according to the draft rules.
http://www.xprizecup.com/
http://www******.com/xprizecup/
“Our goals are completely parallel,” Murphy said of the foundation and NASA. “We want NASA to make things possible, and we, space industry, want to make things profitable.”
According to draft rules for the lunar lander contest, competitors will be challenged to build a vehicle capable of launching vertically, travel a distance of 328 to 656 feet (100 to 200 meters) horizontally, and then land at a designated site. A return trip would then occur between 5 minutes and 30 minutes later.
The contest is expected to be divided into two levels, one for flat terrain, and the other to resemble the lunar surface – with other cash prize amounts based on level difficulty and finish results.
For Level 1 contests, vehicles must fly higher than 328 feet (100 meters) for about 90 seconds and land on flat terrain no more than 10 meters from a target. Level 2 competitions will feature the mock lunar surface and a minimum flight time of 180 seconds, according to the draft rules.
Fagin
little fishie
- Joined
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I could use some BBC
Care to launch a car?
http://www.topgear.com/content/timetoburn/sections/galleries/other/tg_preview2/01/main.jpg
http://www.topgear.com/content/timetoburn/sections/galleries/other/tg_preview2/03/main.jpg
http://www.topgear.com/content/timetoburn/sections/galleries/other/tg_preview2/01/
Care to launch a car?
http://www.topgear.com/content/timetoburn/sections/galleries/other/tg_preview2/01/main.jpg
http://www.topgear.com/content/timetoburn/sections/galleries/other/tg_preview2/03/main.jpg
http://www.topgear.com/content/timetoburn/sections/galleries/other/tg_preview2/01/
linuxgeek
Rogue Scholar
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http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/01/30/news/hubble.php
Hubble telescope loses its most popular camera
January 30, 2007
The Hubble Space Telescope is flying partly blind across the heavens, the result of a short circuit on Saturday in its most popular instrument, the Advanced Camera for Surveys.
NASA engineers reported Monday that most of the camera's capabilities, including the ability to take the sort of deep cosmic postcards that have inspired the public and to track the mysterious dark energy splitting the universe to the ends of time, had probably been lost for good.
In a telephone news conference, Hubble engineers and scientists said the telescope itself was in fine shape and would continue operating with its remaining instruments, which include another camera, the wide-field planetary camera 2, or wfpc2, and an infrared camera and spectrograph named Nicmos.
"Obviously, we are very disappointed," said Preston Burch, program manager for the telescope, at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, noting that the camera had basically met its five-year design lifetime. The Hubble telescope, Burch said, still has significant science capability.
Burch and his colleagues said it was unlikely that they would be able to repair the camera during the next Hubble servicing mission, which is scheduled for September 2008. On that mission, astronauts will replace the wide-field camera with a powerful new version, wfpc3, which will extend the telescope's vision to ultraviolet and infrared wavelengths. They will also install a new ultraviolet spectrograph and make many other pressing repairs.
Noting that the five days of spacewalks for that mission are already full, and that changing things to fix the camera would cost time and money, Burch said, "At first blush, this doesn't look attractive."
The Advanced Camera for Surveys was installed on the telescope in March 2002, and it has been the space telescope's workhorse. Among its other feats, in 2003 the camera took the deepest photograph of the cosmos ever taken, the Hubble Ultra Deep Field, showing young galaxy fragments only one billion to two billion years after the Big Bang. In the most recent round of proposals from astronomers to use the telescope, about two-thirds required the advanced camera.
The camera had been operating on its backup electrical system since last summer, however, when electrical problems in its main system caused it to shut down for a while. Now the backup system has failed, dooming its ability to take wide-field or high-resolution images.
The camera might yet be operated in what the engineers called "solar blind mode," at ultraviolet wavelengths to observe phenomena like auroras on Jupiter.
The electrical problems did not apparently spread to the rest of the telescope. Rick Howard, of NASA headquarters, said: "The fuse did what it was supposed to do. It saw a high current, and it popped. It protected the rest of the telescope."
Astronomers said that the Space Telescope Science Institute had developed a contingency plan of observations that could go on without the camera and that there was no shortage of astronomers who would want to use it. Some of the telescope's most crucial and high-visibility programs, however, will be delayed.
Adam Riess, of the space telescope institute, who has used the Hubble telescope to search for supernova explosions in the distant universe to gauge the effects of dark energy on cosmic history, said these explosions would now be out of reach until the new camera was installed.
Still, Riess said in an e-mail message, it was a great camera.
"Although it only lasted 4.9 years, it was only rated for five years," he said, "so we really got our money's worth."
Hubble telescope loses its most popular camera
January 30, 2007
The Hubble Space Telescope is flying partly blind across the heavens, the result of a short circuit on Saturday in its most popular instrument, the Advanced Camera for Surveys.
NASA engineers reported Monday that most of the camera's capabilities, including the ability to take the sort of deep cosmic postcards that have inspired the public and to track the mysterious dark energy splitting the universe to the ends of time, had probably been lost for good.
In a telephone news conference, Hubble engineers and scientists said the telescope itself was in fine shape and would continue operating with its remaining instruments, which include another camera, the wide-field planetary camera 2, or wfpc2, and an infrared camera and spectrograph named Nicmos.
"Obviously, we are very disappointed," said Preston Burch, program manager for the telescope, at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, noting that the camera had basically met its five-year design lifetime. The Hubble telescope, Burch said, still has significant science capability.
Burch and his colleagues said it was unlikely that they would be able to repair the camera during the next Hubble servicing mission, which is scheduled for September 2008. On that mission, astronauts will replace the wide-field camera with a powerful new version, wfpc3, which will extend the telescope's vision to ultraviolet and infrared wavelengths. They will also install a new ultraviolet spectrograph and make many other pressing repairs.
Noting that the five days of spacewalks for that mission are already full, and that changing things to fix the camera would cost time and money, Burch said, "At first blush, this doesn't look attractive."
The Advanced Camera for Surveys was installed on the telescope in March 2002, and it has been the space telescope's workhorse. Among its other feats, in 2003 the camera took the deepest photograph of the cosmos ever taken, the Hubble Ultra Deep Field, showing young galaxy fragments only one billion to two billion years after the Big Bang. In the most recent round of proposals from astronomers to use the telescope, about two-thirds required the advanced camera.
The camera had been operating on its backup electrical system since last summer, however, when electrical problems in its main system caused it to shut down for a while. Now the backup system has failed, dooming its ability to take wide-field or high-resolution images.
The camera might yet be operated in what the engineers called "solar blind mode," at ultraviolet wavelengths to observe phenomena like auroras on Jupiter.
The electrical problems did not apparently spread to the rest of the telescope. Rick Howard, of NASA headquarters, said: "The fuse did what it was supposed to do. It saw a high current, and it popped. It protected the rest of the telescope."
Astronomers said that the Space Telescope Science Institute had developed a contingency plan of observations that could go on without the camera and that there was no shortage of astronomers who would want to use it. Some of the telescope's most crucial and high-visibility programs, however, will be delayed.
Adam Riess, of the space telescope institute, who has used the Hubble telescope to search for supernova explosions in the distant universe to gauge the effects of dark energy on cosmic history, said these explosions would now be out of reach until the new camera was installed.
Still, Riess said in an e-mail message, it was a great camera.
"Although it only lasted 4.9 years, it was only rated for five years," he said, "so we really got our money's worth."
Fagin
little fishie
- Joined
- Jul 15, 2004
- Posts
- 101,650
China's Anti-Satellite Test: Worrisome Debris Cloud Circles Earth
Leonard David
Senior Space Writer
SPACE.com Fri Feb 2, 4:15 PM ET
The flotsam created by China's anti-satellite test last month is on the radar screens of space debris analysts, as well as space policy experts.
The intentional destruction on Jan. 11 of China's Fengyun-1C weather satellite via an anti-satellite (ASAT) device launched by the Chinese has created a mess of fragments fluttering through space.
The satellite's destruction is now being viewed as the most prolific and severe fragmentation in the course of five decades of space operations.
Lobbed into space atop a ballistic missile, the ASAT destroyed the weather-watching satellite that had been orbiting Earth since May 10, 1999 [image]. The result was littering Earth orbit with hundreds upon hundreds of various sizes of shrapnel.
Debris cloud
NASA's Orbital Debris Program Office at the Johnson Space Center is now at liberty to discuss the characteristics and consequences of the debris cloud created by the fragmentation of the Fengyun-1C spacecraft.
As of today, the U.S. military's Space Surveillance Network has cataloged nearly 600 debris fragments, according to NASA's Nicholas Johnson, Chief Scientist for Orbital Debris at the space agency's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.
However, more than 300 additional fragments are also being tracked, bringing it to a total of more than 900 bits of clutter. "These will be cataloged in due course," Johnson added.
"The total count of tracked objects could go even higher. Based upon the mass of Fengyun-1C and the conditions of the breakup, the standard NASA model for estimating the number of objects greater than 4 inches (10 centimeters) in size predicts a total about 950 such debris," Johnson advised SPACE.com.
Most prolific and serious fragmentation
Johnson said that the debris cloud extends from less than 125 miles (200 kilometers) to more than 2,292 miles (3,850 kilometers), encompassing all of low Earth orbit. The majority of the debris have mean altitudes of 528 miles (850 kilometers) or greater, "which means most will be very long-lived," he said.
The number of smaller orbital debris from this breakup is much higher than the 900-plus being tracked. NASA estimates that the number of debris larger than 1 centimeter is greater than 35,000 bits of riff-raff.
"Any of these debris has the potential for seriously disrupting or terminating the mission of operational spacecraft in low Earth orbit," Johnson pointed out. "This satellite breakup represents the most prolific and serious fragmentation in the course of 50 years of space operations," he said.
Also put in harm's way by the rain of junk from the Chinese ASAT test is the International Space Station (ISS).
"The collision risk between the Fengyun-1C debris cloud and the
International Space Station peaked shortly after the breakup and has been declining since. The risk of collisions between ISS and hazardous objects in Earth orbit is now once again dominated by the background debris population existing prior to the breakup of Fengyun-1C," Johnson said.
Collision of coincidences
Last year's signing by U.S.
President George W. Bush of a new U.S. National Space Policy addressed the topic of orbital debris. The document flagged the progress made both nationally and internationally regarding proliferation of orbital debris over the past decade - but also underscored the worrisome nature of space junk.
"Orbital debris poses a risk to continued reliable use of space-based services and operations and to the safety of persons and property in space and on Earth," the White House document stated. "The United States shall seek to minimize the creation of orbital debris by government and non-government operations in space in order to preserve the space environment for future generations."
In a collision of coincidences, the 25th meeting of the Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee (IADC) is slated for April 23-26 and is hosted by the China National Space Administration. The meeting is to be held at the China Academy of Space Technology in Beijing.
IADC is an international governmental forum for the worldwide coordination of activities related to the issues of human-made and natural debris in space.
Also, reactions spurred by China's ASAT actions are sure to surface later this month at a meeting of the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee of the
United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space in Vienna.
On the UN agenda is the potential approval of draft Space Debris Mitigation Guidelines that were hammered out last year.
source
Leonard David
Senior Space Writer
SPACE.com Fri Feb 2, 4:15 PM ET
The flotsam created by China's anti-satellite test last month is on the radar screens of space debris analysts, as well as space policy experts.
The intentional destruction on Jan. 11 of China's Fengyun-1C weather satellite via an anti-satellite (ASAT) device launched by the Chinese has created a mess of fragments fluttering through space.
The satellite's destruction is now being viewed as the most prolific and severe fragmentation in the course of five decades of space operations.
Lobbed into space atop a ballistic missile, the ASAT destroyed the weather-watching satellite that had been orbiting Earth since May 10, 1999 [image]. The result was littering Earth orbit with hundreds upon hundreds of various sizes of shrapnel.
Debris cloud
NASA's Orbital Debris Program Office at the Johnson Space Center is now at liberty to discuss the characteristics and consequences of the debris cloud created by the fragmentation of the Fengyun-1C spacecraft.
As of today, the U.S. military's Space Surveillance Network has cataloged nearly 600 debris fragments, according to NASA's Nicholas Johnson, Chief Scientist for Orbital Debris at the space agency's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.
However, more than 300 additional fragments are also being tracked, bringing it to a total of more than 900 bits of clutter. "These will be cataloged in due course," Johnson added.
"The total count of tracked objects could go even higher. Based upon the mass of Fengyun-1C and the conditions of the breakup, the standard NASA model for estimating the number of objects greater than 4 inches (10 centimeters) in size predicts a total about 950 such debris," Johnson advised SPACE.com.
Most prolific and serious fragmentation
Johnson said that the debris cloud extends from less than 125 miles (200 kilometers) to more than 2,292 miles (3,850 kilometers), encompassing all of low Earth orbit. The majority of the debris have mean altitudes of 528 miles (850 kilometers) or greater, "which means most will be very long-lived," he said.
The number of smaller orbital debris from this breakup is much higher than the 900-plus being tracked. NASA estimates that the number of debris larger than 1 centimeter is greater than 35,000 bits of riff-raff.
"Any of these debris has the potential for seriously disrupting or terminating the mission of operational spacecraft in low Earth orbit," Johnson pointed out. "This satellite breakup represents the most prolific and serious fragmentation in the course of 50 years of space operations," he said.
Also put in harm's way by the rain of junk from the Chinese ASAT test is the International Space Station (ISS).
"The collision risk between the Fengyun-1C debris cloud and the
International Space Station peaked shortly after the breakup and has been declining since. The risk of collisions between ISS and hazardous objects in Earth orbit is now once again dominated by the background debris population existing prior to the breakup of Fengyun-1C," Johnson said.
Collision of coincidences
Last year's signing by U.S.
President George W. Bush of a new U.S. National Space Policy addressed the topic of orbital debris. The document flagged the progress made both nationally and internationally regarding proliferation of orbital debris over the past decade - but also underscored the worrisome nature of space junk.
"Orbital debris poses a risk to continued reliable use of space-based services and operations and to the safety of persons and property in space and on Earth," the White House document stated. "The United States shall seek to minimize the creation of orbital debris by government and non-government operations in space in order to preserve the space environment for future generations."
In a collision of coincidences, the 25th meeting of the Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee (IADC) is slated for April 23-26 and is hosted by the China National Space Administration. The meeting is to be held at the China Academy of Space Technology in Beijing.
IADC is an international governmental forum for the worldwide coordination of activities related to the issues of human-made and natural debris in space.
Also, reactions spurred by China's ASAT actions are sure to surface later this month at a meeting of the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee of the
United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space in Vienna.
On the UN agenda is the potential approval of draft Space Debris Mitigation Guidelines that were hammered out last year.
source
Fagin
little fishie
- Joined
- Jul 15, 2004
- Posts
- 101,650
linuxgeek
Rogue Scholar
- Joined
- Feb 1, 2004
- Posts
- 32,719
Asteroid threat demands response, experts warn
http://space.newscientist.com/article/dn11207-asteroid-threat-demands-response-experts-warn.html
Asteroid threat demands response, experts warn
17 February 2007
Kamchatkans and Venezuelans beware. A 20-million-tonne asteroid could be heading your way. Californians have even more reason to worry - the asteroid is more likely to hit the Pacific Ocean, triggering a tsunami that could devastate the west coast of North America.
These are among the scenarios projected for asteroid Apophis, which researchers now say has a 1 in 45,000 chance of hitting Earth on 13 April 2036. Calculations show it would strike somewhere along a narrow track that stretches eastward from Siberia to the west coast of Africa.
Compared to earlier estimates, the new figure represents a further reduction in the threat posed by Apophis (see Risk of asteroid smashing into Earth reduced). But the threat is real enough, experts argue, to merit a United Nations protocol for dealing with the problem.
"Someone will have to make a decision," says Russell Schweickart, a former Apollo astronaut and founder of the Association of Space Explorers. Because any plan for deflecting the asteroid away from Earth will need to be implemented well before an impact site is precisely known, he says, "this is inherently going to be an international decision".
Sky surveys
Beginning in the next few months, Schweickart's group will host a series of meetings to provide the UN with a 'decision process' for assessing and acting on the hazard posed by Apophis and other near-Earth asteroids (NEAs). A draft document ready for consideration by the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space is expected by 2009.
During the past 10 years, a concerted search effort by astronomers has led to the detection of an estimated 90% of the asteroids that could threaten Earth with devastation on a global scale. In the coming decade, a next-generation search is likely to uncover most of the remaining global hazards, as well as many more smaller asteroids, like the 250-metre-wide Apophis, that could threaten millions of lives and cause significant damage on a regional scale.
Currently, NASA's Near Earth Object programme lists 127 objects as potential impact risks. By 2020, Schweickart predicts, the list could number in the thousands. Because of the uncertainties involved in calculating asteroid trajectories, many will initially appear to have a small but real chance of hitting Earth in the next few decades.
Too late
In most cases, those threats will vanish with additional observations that will narrow the range of possible trajectories. However, in some cases the threat of an impact could persist long enough to require action.
"If you wait to be certain, it could be too late," says Schweickart.
Schweickart and others discussed options for dealing with Apophis and other asteroid risks at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in San Francisco, California, US.
"Apophis forces us to think about what we might do if [an impact threat] reaches our threshold of pain," say Ed Lu of NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, US.
Lu, who led the discussion on asteroid deflection, warned that "simple methods are not so simple" when it comes to moving the mountain-sized chunks of rock that hurtle through our local region of the solar system. Among the least desirable options is the use of a nuclear warhead to blow up an approaching asteroid. "You could make life a lot worse," says Lu, by turning one potential impactor into many.
'Reshaping the solar system'
Lu's favoured option is called a gravitational tractor. It involves placing a relatively massive spacecraft near enough to an approaching asteroid to shift its trajectory using only the minuscule force of gravity between the two objects. Although the method requires significant lead time and will not work in all cases, it has the advantage of controlling a hazardous object "in one piece", say Lu.
According to Lu, Apophis is particularly amenable to this form of manoeuvring. Prior to its threatening approach in 2036, the asteroid will sweep past Earth in the spring of 2029. Any change in the asteroid's position before this will be greatly magnified by the 2029 encounter, which could, in turn, eliminate the chance of an impact in 2036.
Such a mission could succeed with a 1-metric-tonne spacecraft arriving at Apophis as late as 2027, says Schweickart, who envisions a protocol that would allow the UN to 'contract' the world's space agencies to remove the threat.
"We can't prevent a hurricane," says Schweickart. "But we can prevent an asteroid impact by slightly reshaping the solar system to ensure the survival of life on Earth."
http://space.newscientist.com/article/dn11207-asteroid-threat-demands-response-experts-warn.html
Asteroid threat demands response, experts warn
17 February 2007
Kamchatkans and Venezuelans beware. A 20-million-tonne asteroid could be heading your way. Californians have even more reason to worry - the asteroid is more likely to hit the Pacific Ocean, triggering a tsunami that could devastate the west coast of North America.
These are among the scenarios projected for asteroid Apophis, which researchers now say has a 1 in 45,000 chance of hitting Earth on 13 April 2036. Calculations show it would strike somewhere along a narrow track that stretches eastward from Siberia to the west coast of Africa.
Compared to earlier estimates, the new figure represents a further reduction in the threat posed by Apophis (see Risk of asteroid smashing into Earth reduced). But the threat is real enough, experts argue, to merit a United Nations protocol for dealing with the problem.
"Someone will have to make a decision," says Russell Schweickart, a former Apollo astronaut and founder of the Association of Space Explorers. Because any plan for deflecting the asteroid away from Earth will need to be implemented well before an impact site is precisely known, he says, "this is inherently going to be an international decision".
Sky surveys
Beginning in the next few months, Schweickart's group will host a series of meetings to provide the UN with a 'decision process' for assessing and acting on the hazard posed by Apophis and other near-Earth asteroids (NEAs). A draft document ready for consideration by the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space is expected by 2009.
During the past 10 years, a concerted search effort by astronomers has led to the detection of an estimated 90% of the asteroids that could threaten Earth with devastation on a global scale. In the coming decade, a next-generation search is likely to uncover most of the remaining global hazards, as well as many more smaller asteroids, like the 250-metre-wide Apophis, that could threaten millions of lives and cause significant damage on a regional scale.
Currently, NASA's Near Earth Object programme lists 127 objects as potential impact risks. By 2020, Schweickart predicts, the list could number in the thousands. Because of the uncertainties involved in calculating asteroid trajectories, many will initially appear to have a small but real chance of hitting Earth in the next few decades.
Too late
In most cases, those threats will vanish with additional observations that will narrow the range of possible trajectories. However, in some cases the threat of an impact could persist long enough to require action.
"If you wait to be certain, it could be too late," says Schweickart.
Schweickart and others discussed options for dealing with Apophis and other asteroid risks at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in San Francisco, California, US.
"Apophis forces us to think about what we might do if [an impact threat] reaches our threshold of pain," say Ed Lu of NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, US.
Lu, who led the discussion on asteroid deflection, warned that "simple methods are not so simple" when it comes to moving the mountain-sized chunks of rock that hurtle through our local region of the solar system. Among the least desirable options is the use of a nuclear warhead to blow up an approaching asteroid. "You could make life a lot worse," says Lu, by turning one potential impactor into many.
'Reshaping the solar system'
Lu's favoured option is called a gravitational tractor. It involves placing a relatively massive spacecraft near enough to an approaching asteroid to shift its trajectory using only the minuscule force of gravity between the two objects. Although the method requires significant lead time and will not work in all cases, it has the advantage of controlling a hazardous object "in one piece", say Lu.
According to Lu, Apophis is particularly amenable to this form of manoeuvring. Prior to its threatening approach in 2036, the asteroid will sweep past Earth in the spring of 2029. Any change in the asteroid's position before this will be greatly magnified by the 2029 encounter, which could, in turn, eliminate the chance of an impact in 2036.
Such a mission could succeed with a 1-metric-tonne spacecraft arriving at Apophis as late as 2027, says Schweickart, who envisions a protocol that would allow the UN to 'contract' the world's space agencies to remove the threat.
"We can't prevent a hurricane," says Schweickart. "But we can prevent an asteroid impact by slightly reshaping the solar system to ensure the survival of life on Earth."
linuxgeek
Rogue Scholar
- Joined
- Feb 1, 2004
- Posts
- 32,719
http://www.wesh.com/news/11123660/detail.html
NASA To Remove Damaged Shuttle From Pad
February 27, 2007
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- The space shuttle Atlantis will be moved off the launch pad, which will delay next month's scheduled launch, NASA said on Tuesday.
A thunderstorm at the Kennedy Space Center on Monday afternoon damaged the external fuel tank of the space shuttle.
Shuttle program director Wayne Hale announced the shuttle's move back to the Vehicle Assembly Building at a late-afternoon news conference on Tuesday.
He said that the damage from Monday's storm was the worst the space agency has ever seen from hail on the fuel tank's foam exterior. Hale said he thinks the delay will set the next launch window back to at least late April.
The shuttle was damaged during a fuel-loading operation at the launch pad in preparation for a scheduled March 15 launch.
Shortly after the storm, Hale arrived at the Kennedy Space Center.
"When we taxied to a stop and we looked out of the airplane and there was ice laying all over the ground, we thought maybe we had landed in the wrong spot. That was the first 'Oh no,' moment," Hale said.
Near the launch pad, the hail was the size of golf balls. The top of the fuel tank -- the most vulnerable part -- has 7,000 dents, dings and other scratches that could cause serious danger to the astronauts.
During launch, small bits of foam insulation come off even from perfectly smooth tanks. A damaged tank could lose larger pieces, which could lead to serious damage for the shuttle itself.
Now, NASA will determine if the tank can be repaired.
"We have a fairly high degree of confidence that we can repair this at the Kennedy Space Center, but that will be reviewed when we get it close and look at the tank," Hale said.
If the fuel tank has to be replaced, Hale said a new tank is already scheduled to arrive on April 10. He said that would mean the shuttle would likely not launch until June.
If the Atlantis mission is delayed until April, Hale said that could impact this year's other scheduled flights.
"But by the time we roll around to the end of the year, I expect we would fully be able to catch back up," Hale said. "I really doubt that this will have any long-term effect on the manifest and we'll probably be back where we expected to be by the end of the year."
The hail storm also caused damage to the orbiter itself.
"Our preliminary assessment of the orbiter showed 26 or 27 tiles on the left-hand wing that have minor surface damage," said NASA's Mike Leinbach. "These are repaired either with a topcoat that's called a slurry or putty repair. Those are very standard repairs for us. We have not seen any orbiter damage that causes us any real concern."
The last time the space shuttle was damaged in a thunderstorm, a rollback to the Vehicle Assembly Building resulted in a long launch delay, Billow said.
Atlantis is slated for an 11-day mission to the International Space Station. The six-member crew will install a new truss segment, retract a set of solar arrays and unfold a new set.
NASA To Remove Damaged Shuttle From Pad
February 27, 2007
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- The space shuttle Atlantis will be moved off the launch pad, which will delay next month's scheduled launch, NASA said on Tuesday.
A thunderstorm at the Kennedy Space Center on Monday afternoon damaged the external fuel tank of the space shuttle.
Shuttle program director Wayne Hale announced the shuttle's move back to the Vehicle Assembly Building at a late-afternoon news conference on Tuesday.
He said that the damage from Monday's storm was the worst the space agency has ever seen from hail on the fuel tank's foam exterior. Hale said he thinks the delay will set the next launch window back to at least late April.
The shuttle was damaged during a fuel-loading operation at the launch pad in preparation for a scheduled March 15 launch.
Shortly after the storm, Hale arrived at the Kennedy Space Center.
"When we taxied to a stop and we looked out of the airplane and there was ice laying all over the ground, we thought maybe we had landed in the wrong spot. That was the first 'Oh no,' moment," Hale said.
Near the launch pad, the hail was the size of golf balls. The top of the fuel tank -- the most vulnerable part -- has 7,000 dents, dings and other scratches that could cause serious danger to the astronauts.
During launch, small bits of foam insulation come off even from perfectly smooth tanks. A damaged tank could lose larger pieces, which could lead to serious damage for the shuttle itself.
Now, NASA will determine if the tank can be repaired.
"We have a fairly high degree of confidence that we can repair this at the Kennedy Space Center, but that will be reviewed when we get it close and look at the tank," Hale said.
If the fuel tank has to be replaced, Hale said a new tank is already scheduled to arrive on April 10. He said that would mean the shuttle would likely not launch until June.
If the Atlantis mission is delayed until April, Hale said that could impact this year's other scheduled flights.
"But by the time we roll around to the end of the year, I expect we would fully be able to catch back up," Hale said. "I really doubt that this will have any long-term effect on the manifest and we'll probably be back where we expected to be by the end of the year."
The hail storm also caused damage to the orbiter itself.
"Our preliminary assessment of the orbiter showed 26 or 27 tiles on the left-hand wing that have minor surface damage," said NASA's Mike Leinbach. "These are repaired either with a topcoat that's called a slurry or putty repair. Those are very standard repairs for us. We have not seen any orbiter damage that causes us any real concern."
The last time the space shuttle was damaged in a thunderstorm, a rollback to the Vehicle Assembly Building resulted in a long launch delay, Billow said.
Atlantis is slated for an 11-day mission to the International Space Station. The six-member crew will install a new truss segment, retract a set of solar arrays and unfold a new set.
