Tuesday, February 04, 2003

Experts... My 8th grade math teacher always warned us of anyone called an "ex" anything... this note from b.cognosco is on point: Today's Wall Street Journal article (subscription required) on the future of manned space flight quotes a number of "experts" -- not all of whom are right. [...] "Any specific mission you can identify to do in space, you can design and build an unmanned space craft to do it more effectively, more economically and more safely," said Alex Roland, a professor of history at Duke University and for eight years a historian at NASA. Manned space flights are more about capturing the public's imagination than science, he said. "It's circus, it's just pure circus." [...] [WSJ Online] By this philosophy we don't actually need doctors, history professors, or even steering wheels in cars. Let's just have machines do it all. It was a dumb thing to say. 12:13:07 PM

From Doc: It's worse than it appears. Guardian: NASA memo warned of damage to shuttle. Then there's this, this and this. For a sense of the human cost, Trinetizen has a long and moving piece by Julian Matthews about Astronaunt Kalpana Chawla. (This link is a bit more browser-friendly.) Steve at Illruminations observes both how the media gets it wrong, and how hard it is to explain the bad stuff to kids. He adds two excellent links to blog entries by David Pinto on Astronaunt Dave Brown, and some of the last things Brown had to say. More from Florida Today. [The Doc Searls Weblog] 11:48:59 AM

New Posts Howard Owens writes of the need to expand our goals and accelerate our efforts in space exploration. Memorials I know you have been collecting memorials and various sites regarding Columbia. I have placed a memorial on my site that might interest your readers. It is on the index page of the site, so they do not have to surf the site to see the memorial, I am not looking for business, only expressing my own grief and sorrow at the loss of Columbia. Please consider passing this site on to your readers. http://www.designwolf.com the movie opens directly from the link. It is a one megabyte file so users with a dial up connection will have to wait a couple of minutes for it to open. Users with high speed connections can view and see the movie in a high quality version with the high quality link posted on the index page of the site. Again, as I said, I'm not looking for business, only to share my efforts with the world. Thank you.   February Morn Where were you that February Morn In Texas where the earth was torn In your chair your eyes all a glaze To see the mist and the streak, all ablaze It stood for those seven Who dared to dream in the sky It was the Columbia in descent Never to arrive It took only a second to change their lives forever Their dreams as they knew them will go on forever and ever As you gaze at the sky late at night Remember them all smiling as they took their final flight Their bravery and love of space was their life and their love they are looking down upon us now as they fly from above   In honor of The Columbia Crew Rick D. Husband Kalpana Chawla William C McCool David M. Brown Laurel Clark Michael P. Anderson IIan Ramon   Written by: fullmoon01@juno.com 11:45:11 AM

Many agree with John: I was thinking the same thing as Dave was when he wrote "Moon Missions."  It was: weren't those guys lucky to have participated in the space program.  Sure, they took a risk (a known risk), and they ended up paying for it with their lives.  However, they accomplished something that so few of us will ever get to do.  Would I take a 2% risk (there is probably a higher risk if the right statistical approach is used) of catastrophic failure to go to space?  In a NY minute.  After listening to the relatives of the astronauts that died on STS-107, one thing stands out: its clear both they and the astronauts knew the risk involved and accepted it as part of doing something that was truly exceptional. A true hero mindset. There is something we can do to help make going to space both safer and more economical:  build a new space transportation system with modern technology.  The shuttle was designed with early 1970's technology.  There is reason to speculate that we have made as much technological and scientific progress in the last 25 years than we had made in all the years before that.  Our inability to find it in our national will to apply that new technology to one of the few great human endeavors continues to astound me. [John Robb's Radio Weblog] Moon Missions is worth the read. 7:03:14 AM

The other casualties... At NASA hub, grief and comfort. Workers take solace in a shared mission, but worry about layoffs. [Christian Science Monitor | Top Stories] The letters from the children -- full of dreams.  But, here is an excerpt from Doc Searls that really puts things in perspective: The hard answers    Yesterday the kid wanted to know what, exactly, happened to the astronaunts when the shuttle "came apart" on re-entry. How were they killed? Was it the same as with the Challenger?   I lied. I told him both shuttles were blown into small pieces, astronaunts included. "Small pieces? How small?" More to the point, "Is there any way they could have lived, even for a little while?"   In fact, the Challenger astronaunts were apparently alive all the way down to the water, though it's not certain they were conscious.   What happened to the Columbia astronaunts is less clear. But I didn't want to tell him what I had read about the bodies.   Before we went outside to look at the stars, he said "What's seven and seven?" He knew he answer, but wanted me to give him the number anyway. "Fourteen," I said. "Why?"   "We need to pray for all fourteen astronaunts on the two shuttles," he said.   And so we did. 7:00:29 AM

Comments later... Text: Excerpts From NASA News Conferences. Following are excerpts from NASA news conferences yesterday morning and afternoon, as recorded by The New York Times. Speakers at the first session included William F. Readdy, administrator of the space flight and Maj. Gen. Michael C. Kostelnik, deputy associate administrator for the space shuttle and International Space Station programs. Ron D. Dittemore, NASA's shuttle program manager, spoke at the afternoon news conference. Fuller excerpts are available at nytimes.com/columbia. [New York Times: Politics] 6:57:24 AM

The questioning.. Future of the Shuttle Program Is Linked to the Space Station's. Questions are being raised about the space shuttle program which, along with the International Space Station, was conceived to follow the successful Apollo landings. By John Noble Wilford. [New York Times: Politics] 6:50:33 AM

What do we want to be when we grow up? I sometimes think we as a country do not have a "big dream" in front of us.  We are all very busy trying to live our individual lives.  Yet, without some inspiration, what will we become?  I am very much involved in politics and it seems that what is debated in the campaign is more about the here and now rather than the future.  Anyway, here is an article, focused on space exploration, to cause one to think about what we want to be. Reviving Romance With Space, Even as 'Space Age' Fades. Astronomers and space fans insist that the deep human desire to discover who we are in the universe will triumph over the momentary cultural queasiness. By Amy Harmon. [New York Times: Technology] 6:49:13 AM