AUGIWorld Magazine - January/February 2008 - (Page 28) On The Page Back The Good, the Bad, and the Obvious In 2004 I wrote in this column about the fate of the Hubble Telescope. At that point the space shuttle had been grounded for almost a year following the loss of the Columbia and its crew on February 1, 2003. This event contributed to the dark cloud of fear that was still coloring the national psyche following the September 11 attacks. The Iraq and Afghanistan incursions were just beginning to look like they would become very long engagements. The fifth Hubble servicing mission was on track for May 2003, just weeks after the Columbia disaster. The Hubble’s batteries were, and are, in dire need of replacement by 2009. It is predicted that the fourth of six gyroscopes running the attitude control system will likely fail by 2009. The Hubble will then begin to tumble and immediately become unrecoverable space junk. (Imagine a medium-sized aircraft dangling from a rope and spinning 2-3 times a minute. Your job is to stop it from spinning while standing on the tip of a long sailboat mast as the captain steers you into its path.) In 2004, then-NASA Director Sean O’Keefe made the decision to cancel the service mission, effectively abandoning the Hubble. The basis of the decision was that no “safe haven” existed in the event that a shuttle rescue was needed. It is not possible to change course from the Hubble’s orbit to the ISS’s orbit. If the shuttle’s exterior was damaged on launch and unable to withstand re-entry, (which was the fate of the Columbia) the crew would be stranded. Mr. O’Keefe had decided that the American public could not handle another shuttle disaster, when what we really needed was a win, a hero. The public outcry was loud and long, and Mr. O’Keefe soon left NASA. Everyone in the astronaut corps, and I believe any thinking person, is fully aware of the danger of space flight. Well before we reached outer space, many test pilots gave their lives, albeit less publicly, in service to the cause of aeronautical pioneering. Even after two catastrophic events, it was generally understood that once the shuttle start28 ed flying again, every astronaut would jump on the Hubble service mission assignment, regardless of the risk. That attitude is what made, and makes, America great. David Kingsley hardware into space at a cost of $1,000 per pound. For the last 10 years it has been $10,000 per pound. The Arian rockets do it for $3,500 per pound, but are not safety rated for human flight. Orion rising and the new space race The good news It has gotten very little press, but in October 2006, NASA Director Mike Griffin scheduled the final Hubble service mission for August 7, 2008, late this summer. Astronauts have begun hands-on training for mission STS-125. The most ambitious task is the replacement of a deeply buried power supply and circuit board requiring the removal of more than 110 screws (and you know there will be one left over!). When completed, the Hubble will operate until 2013. The scheme for this mission (this is the obvious part) is to have two shuttles ready for launch, the first to carry out the mission, the second for a backup rescue mission. The end of an era Columbia made the first flight of the shuttle program on April 12, 1981, and was destroyed on re-entry February 1, 2003. The shuttle program will probably end in 2010. No official final mission has been scheduled, but the stated goal is to complete the International Space Station. If another catastrophe occurs, there will be no attempt to continue shuttle flights. Without it, the European Space Agency’s Arian rocket would become the workhorse for ISS construction. With its stellar accomplishments, and its position as a source of national pride, in the grand scheme of things the shuttle program has not reached its stated goal. The original goal was to ferry people and The Chinese are sending a probe to the moon with rumors of a manned mission in a very few years. The Europeans might become our space freight service if we don’t get a move on. We are long overdue for a major advance in space exploration. Another feather in NASA Director Mike Griffin’s cap is the acceleration of the shuttle’s replacement program. Orion is in the design stage with plans for a 2014 deployment. Lockheed-Martin claims it will be 10 times safer than the shuttle. It will return to a very large rocket with the mission module on top of it (not in the bay of the crew module), and the crew module (with no cargo bay) at the tip of the spear. The crew module looks and flies like an updated shuttle and will be capable of carrying six people into orbit, or four people to the moon. In the event of a launch failure, the rocket engines and fuel are well behind the crew, unlike the current shuttle that envelops the crew in high explosives. The crew vehicle can separate from the launch vehicle at any point before or during launch, and return the crew to a safe landing on water or land. If you think that space is a frivolous expense, you should consider that NASA gets a little over one-half percent of the national budget. For every $1 we spend on NASA, we spend $23.50 interest on the national debt, $38 on the military budget, $40 on Homeland Security, and $98 dollars for social programs. For the peanuts we spend on NASA, the resulting technology transfer to commercial products, the national pride derived from the space program, and the highpaying, long-term jobs for us CAD jockies, NASA is a real bargain. David Kingsley served from 1999-2004 on the AUGI Board of Directors and is the Director of Electrons at CADPlayer Web Courseware. He can be reached at djkingsley@cad-tv.com. w w w. A U G I . c o m http://www.AUGI.com
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