Trying Again
Speeding into the future has always been very, very dangerous, this face has been proven in such things as the space shuttle Challenger blowing up on Jan. 28, 1986 and the Columbia disaster in 2003. But now, with out new, fat more advance technology, NASA is planning on sending seven astronauts into space on the shuttle Discovery and followed by Atlantis. These two shuttles will be testing new safety procedures and cutting-edge techniques for shuttle repair
"We've spent the better part of 2 years making upgrades and improvements to make sure that doesn't happen again," Allard Beutel says.
One goal of the mission, called STS-114 or "Return to Flight," is to continue building the International Space Station. Sixteen nations are working together to build the station, which will serve as an orbiting base for further research and exploration of space and, I assume, earth.
And, this time, NASA has a team of aver 10,000 working to prevent another Columbia or Challenger-type disaster from occurring once again.
"We've spent the better part of 2 years making upgrades and improvements to make sure that doesn't happen again," Beutel says.
Columbia's failure began 83 seconds after launch, when a chunk of foam, put there to keep ice off the hull, broke off its external fuel tank and hit the left wing, damaging it.
When a spacecraft comes back down to Earth, the body can heat up to as much as 3,000 degrees, Beutel says. During Columbia's reentry after 16 days in orbit, the intensely hot air broke apart the weakened wing, and the whole shuttle shattered.
To avoid another such disaster, Discovery is equipped with electric heaters to keep the ice off the fuel tank. And, if any damage should be inflicted on the ship, NASA has impact sensors in the wings and they will alert ground control if ice or bits of debris slam into the shuttle on its way up.
In addition a bunch of high-definition cameras will take pictures and use radar to record every second of the launch from more angles than ever. These images should show any impacts that the impact sensors miss.
And when the shuttle gets to the space station it will undergo a full digital checkup by a bunch of computers, taking pictures and giving any damage assessments that it might have received while traveling.
In the off chance of something going wrong the astronauts will use the space station as a platform for taking spacewalks and making repairs to the damaged shuttle. If, for whatever reason, they can't fix what's wrong, the astronauts will take refuge in the space station, and Atlantis will take an emergency trip to pick them up and return them to terra firma.
With such precautions it seems very unlikely that anything will go wrong and, even if it does, no one will get hurt with the back up plan to the back up plan to the back up plan.
It should take 28 more shuttle flights to finish the space station project, Beutel says. Once it's done, the station could serve as a way station for trips into the distant solar system and beyond, just like in those little sci-fi books and movies we like so much.
"We're not just trying to go to Mars or the moon," Beutel says. "We're trying to put people out in space permanently."
Eventually, NASA plans to launch a whole new, updated fleet of spacecrafts. It's not clear yet what the new vehicles will look like, but they're sure to be safer and better than what's available now. Today's shuttles were built in the 1970s and 80s. Technology has come a long way since then.
The first unmanned test flights of the new craft should go up in 2008, Beutel says. By 2014, NASA plans to use them to send people to the moon on lottery trips and vacations.
"It's very possible that the elementary and middle school students reading this right now are the ones who are going to be going up on missions to Mars and the moon," he says. "The work we're doing today paves the way for them."
Citations:
http://www.sciencenewsforkids.org/articles/20050427/Feature1.asp
"We've spent the better part of 2 years making upgrades and improvements to make sure that doesn't happen again," Allard Beutel says.
One goal of the mission, called STS-114 or "Return to Flight," is to continue building the International Space Station. Sixteen nations are working together to build the station, which will serve as an orbiting base for further research and exploration of space and, I assume, earth.
And, this time, NASA has a team of aver 10,000 working to prevent another Columbia or Challenger-type disaster from occurring once again.
"We've spent the better part of 2 years making upgrades and improvements to make sure that doesn't happen again," Beutel says.
Columbia's failure began 83 seconds after launch, when a chunk of foam, put there to keep ice off the hull, broke off its external fuel tank and hit the left wing, damaging it.
When a spacecraft comes back down to Earth, the body can heat up to as much as 3,000 degrees, Beutel says. During Columbia's reentry after 16 days in orbit, the intensely hot air broke apart the weakened wing, and the whole shuttle shattered.
To avoid another such disaster, Discovery is equipped with electric heaters to keep the ice off the fuel tank. And, if any damage should be inflicted on the ship, NASA has impact sensors in the wings and they will alert ground control if ice or bits of debris slam into the shuttle on its way up.
In addition a bunch of high-definition cameras will take pictures and use radar to record every second of the launch from more angles than ever. These images should show any impacts that the impact sensors miss.
And when the shuttle gets to the space station it will undergo a full digital checkup by a bunch of computers, taking pictures and giving any damage assessments that it might have received while traveling.
In the off chance of something going wrong the astronauts will use the space station as a platform for taking spacewalks and making repairs to the damaged shuttle. If, for whatever reason, they can't fix what's wrong, the astronauts will take refuge in the space station, and Atlantis will take an emergency trip to pick them up and return them to terra firma.
With such precautions it seems very unlikely that anything will go wrong and, even if it does, no one will get hurt with the back up plan to the back up plan to the back up plan.
It should take 28 more shuttle flights to finish the space station project, Beutel says. Once it's done, the station could serve as a way station for trips into the distant solar system and beyond, just like in those little sci-fi books and movies we like so much.
"We're not just trying to go to Mars or the moon," Beutel says. "We're trying to put people out in space permanently."
Eventually, NASA plans to launch a whole new, updated fleet of spacecrafts. It's not clear yet what the new vehicles will look like, but they're sure to be safer and better than what's available now. Today's shuttles were built in the 1970s and 80s. Technology has come a long way since then.
The first unmanned test flights of the new craft should go up in 2008, Beutel says. By 2014, NASA plans to use them to send people to the moon on lottery trips and vacations.
"It's very possible that the elementary and middle school students reading this right now are the ones who are going to be going up on missions to Mars and the moon," he says. "The work we're doing today paves the way for them."
Citations:
http://www.sciencenewsforkids.org/articles/20050427/Feature1.asp
posted by Myrage | 7:38 PM
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