DailyDirt: Space Shuttle Stories
from the urls-we-dig-up dept
For some people, NASA's Space Shuttle program was almost a complete boondoggle. The shuttles never fully lived up to their original promises, and they were far more expensive than planned. But the design of a reusable space plane captures the imagination in a way that an acorn-shaped capsule doesn't. Here are just a few stories about the Space Shuttle that you might have missed.- Wayne Hale, a retired Space Shuttle Flight Director, explains how Columbia was damaged by the loss of insulation foam -- by finding out that Discovery was almost damaged in the same way. It wasn't due to improper foam installation, but instead thermal cycling from filling and re-filling the cryogenic fuel. [url]
- On its way to a museum, Enterprise sustains damage to its wingtip after hitting a bridge. The NASA prototype spacecraft never flew in space, and it suffered only cosmetic damage while being transported to its final destination at the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum in Manhattan. [url]
- Caenorhabditis elegans worms actually survived the Columbia disaster, and their descendants flew into space in 2011 on the Endeavour. Worms on a m*********ing spaceplane! [url]
- To discover more links on space exploration, check out what's floating around in StumbleUpon universe. [url]
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: caenorhabditis elegans, columbia, discovery, endeavour, enterprise, shuttle, space, spacecraft, wayne hale, worms
Companies: nasa
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
cockroaches and worms will outlive us all
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: cockroaches and worms will outlive us all
Basically, since we really don't whether there is life of some kind on Mars, we may have an ethical obligation to prevent any kind of biological contamination to the planet, since it might destroy native microbes. And while there has been no evidence of extant life found on Mars, it's foolish to assume there isn't any, since we haven't looked at even 1% of the planet. And even if it does turn out there's no life on Mars at all now, there might have been in the past, and there might be inestimably valuable remains left on the planet that could be damaged irreparably by earth biology.
The long and the short of it is: We don't know what might happen if we contaminate Mars, so our best option is to not do anything biologically to the planet until we have a much more complete picture of the planet.
Besides, we've f**ked up the planet we live on pretty badly. Why would we do any better with Mars?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
RAM
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: RAM
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: RAM
Boondoggle, indeed!
Microsoft could learn a thing or two from NASA software engineers apparently.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: RAM
Those computer went at the same time the Shuttles did. Compare that to modern launches using laptops or the latest touch-screen.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: RAM
[ link to this | view in chronology ]