Shuttle's legacy

I still don't think there is a balance between accomplishments and investment.

"Space shuttle's science brought payoffs to Earth"

by

Seth Borenstein

July 18th. 2011

Associated Press

Science from the space shuttle helped open Earth's eyes to the cosmos and sister planets. It created perhaps the most detailed topographical map of Earth. And it even is helping doctors understand, and sometimes fix, what's happening in our aging and ailing bodies.

If you need help getting out of a crashed car, or if you're a soldier maneuvering around an active land mine field, space shuttle-derived technology may have saved your life.

And thanks to the space shuttle, we have healthier baby formula and cooling socks to wear in hot weather.

Most Americans wrongly credit the Apollo moon program with creating Earthly "spinoffs" of new technology that it never did: sticky Velcro, non-sticky Teflon and orange-powdered Tang — all things used by NASA but not invented there.

Yet the space shuttle program often doesn't get recognized for its science and technology, NASA says. And shuttle-based science will come to an end when Atlantis — carrying mouse stem cell and vaccine experiments — comes home on Thursday.

Of course spending nearly $200 billion on any advanced technology will pay off in various unplanned ways. And one scientist, a prominent critic of manned spaceflight, says NASA's claimed benefits are more hype than hope.

Bob Park, a professor of physics at the University of Maryland, debunker of science myths and author of the book "Voodoo Science," said much of NASA's claims of science and earthly technological benefits is advertising hokum that helps companies sell items as being developed in space.

"If you trace them, there's nothing there," Park said. "Teflon, Tang, nothing was invented in space. Space used it."

Park points to a decades-old NASA spinoff report as supporting his skepticism.

But scientists who have worked with and for the space agency say research during the 10 years the shuttle was developed and the 30 years it has flown has paid off.

"There's been a good deal of science learned on the shuttle," said MIT astronautics and health technology professor Laurence Young, who has sent experiments on seven shuttle flights, mostly on how weightlessness affects the body.

Science wasn't the reason the shuttle was built, said Rice University physicist Neal Lane, who was the head of the National Science Foundation and President Bill Clinton's science adviser. However, the shuttle and the International Space Station — which couldn't be constructed without the shuttle — are unprecedented places for important science. He has great hopes for an antimatter physics experiment shuttle Endeavour delivered to the station in May.

People overlook the increased understanding in human biology that the shuttle and station have provided, Lane said. "We've learned some things about the human body that we had no other way to learn except to operate for some period of time — some extended period of time — in space."

Astronauts lose bone strength, have balance problems and weakened immune systems that in many ways are similar to aging. Studying how to combat bone loss on shuttle astronauts with exercise and other activity may help the Earth-bound, they figure.

Still, the most obvious science the shuttle helped generate is with astronomy. Exhibit 1 is the Hubble Space Telescope, which changed Earth's view of the cosmos and even its understanding of the age of the universe. It was launched with the shuttle, fixed with the shuttle and upgraded four other times by spacewalking shuttle astronauts. Without all that, Earth's view of the rest of the universe would have been fuzzy at best.

Former NASA science chief Alan Stern said the shuttle launched three other major space exploration probes: Galileo, which gave close-up views of Jupiter and its moons; Magellan, which mapped hot chaotic Venus; and Ulysses, which examined the sun's larger influence on the edges of the solar system.

But what's taken for granted even more is how the shuttle improved our view of our home planet with one flight in 2000. The spacecraft carried a set of special radar instruments that mapped most of the world, including previously inaccessible areas such as jungles and mountaintops, with the most precise topographical measurements ever. This is important for military planning and aviation.

"It's a gift that is going to keep on giving. It's going to affect science, environment and national security," said University of Tennessee aviation and flight research professor John Muratore, a former NASA flight director. "And that is a really undervalued mission."

Another overlooked item from the space shuttle is the bioreactor, Muratore said. It originally was designed to grow cells and tissue in space for experiments in zero gravity, but it's used on Earth for all sorts of biomedical research, he said. Bioreactors can grow blood and human tissue in a constantly rotating growth medium that simulates the free fall of zero gravity. Then, scientists can direct tissue growth in predetermined shapes using plastic lattices, much like the way ivy climbs walls. It's still a developing technology so who knows where it will lead, said Dan Lockney, NASA's spinoff technology manager.

Each year, NASA puts out a list of shuttle science spinoffs, which are either purposeful or accidental. NASA scientists were trying to design better space food and they looked to algae. They found an algae nutrient that had only been seen in human breast milk and developed it. It is now in 95 percent of infant formula, Lockney said.

"Millions of babies have been fed (by) NASA; that beats Tang," Lockney said. Another common item is a material designed for shuttle spacesuits that controls temperature, cooling astronauts. Phase change materials from Outlast Technologies Inc. are now in socks, outdoor clothing and even some business suits, he said.

Famed heart surgeon Dr. Michael DeBakey helped develop a tiny new artificial heart pump — a bridge for patients needing transplants — based on fluid flow through the space shuttle main engines, the most complicated engines ever built. A few hundred people have had the device implanted.

NASA helped develop a tool for firefighters that rescues people from crashed cars that is lighter and cheaper than the famed Jaws of Life and which doesn't need an outside power source or hoses. Also, shuttle rocket fuel has been used to develop a device that safely sets off buried land mines.

For MIT's Young, science on the space shuttle is ideal. Astronauts would get so familiar with the experiments they had to perform, that they became experts themselves, sometimes adapting the research and making it better. They often were co-authors of Young's published research papers.

This was "the way we thought science should be done," he said.

Behemoths...“Big Brutus” and "Crawler Transport"

What’s orange and black with a bit of white and green and once tore into the Earth’s surface seeking vast coal deposits? The answer can be found in West Mineral, Kansas. It is “Big Brutus”. It was eclipsed by “Big Muskie” once located in Cumberland, Ohio and now gone. “Big Brutus” [Bucyrus Erie model 1850B] weighs 5.5X10^3 tons, is about 160 feet high, has a bucket capacity of 90 cubic yards, and speeds along at a whopping speed of about .2 mph. In the mid 1980’s it was retired and converted into a museum.

Now that the space shuttles are grounded, see how they got to the launch pad.


We take many things for granted. Sometimes the little things escape our attention or really don't appear to be important when compared to something more spectacular. Remember the huge Saturn rockets being slowly transported to the launch pad. Tedious indeed--snail pace: One could read War and Peace...twice..in Braille by the time all was done. But the mechanism to move any rocket from point "A" to point "B" is really quite interesting. It takes a behemoth to move a behemoth. Such are the "crawler transport" systems.

"Space shuttle movers get new shoes"

"Crawler - Transporter"

"The Crawler-Transporter" by John Duncan

Fuel leak on space shuttle Discovery

Again a mechanical problem has delayed the shuttle and cost more millions.

"Space shuttle launch postponed again"

by

Irene Klotz

August 25th, 2009

Reuters

NASA delayed a Wednesday morning liftoff of the space shuttle Discovery because of an apparent problem with a valve in its fuel tank.

It was the second consecutive delay, after stormy weather postponed a launch attempt early on Tuesday. Discovery and its seven-member crew were preparing for a 13-day supply mission to the International Space Station.

The valve problem surfaced as technicians began fueling up the shuttle for a launch set for 1:10 a.m. EDT (0510 GMT) from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

"It appears we have a broken fill-and-drain valve," said NASA spokesman Allard Beutel. "It may not be broken, it may be an indicator that was not giving a proper reading."

Managers did not immediately set a new launch date. NASA has until Sunday to get Discovery off the launch pad before the flight would likely be reset for October due to scheduling conflicts with other launches and tests at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

In addition, the International Space Station is preparing for its first cargo ship from Japan and cannot receive the shuttle and the new Japanese vehicle simultaneously.

Discovery is scheduled to deliver lab equipment, supplies and spare parts to the station.

Including Discovery's flight, NASA plans seven more shuttle missions to the space station. The 16-nation, $100 billion project is nearing completion after more than a decade of construction 220 miles above Earth.

The shuttles are being retired late next year or early 2011. NASA is working on a new type of spaceship called Orion that can travel beyond the station's orbit to the moon and other destinations.

After the shuttle program ends, the station will depend on Russian, European and Japanese vehicles, though none has nearly the lift capacity of the shuttle, which can haul 50,000 pounds (23,000 kg).

Discovery carries new science racks, a freezer, a sleep station, a second treadmill, food, clothing, supplies and spare parts for the station, including an 1,800-pound (800 kg) ammonia coolant tank that will be installed during two of the spacewalks.

Among the experiments planned for the station is a bone-loss study that uses genetically altered mice as subjects. The mice are flying to the station aboard Discovery and will be left aboard until the next shuttle mission in November.


Good reason to keep feet on the ground

Shuttle Discovery is ready to GO...finally

"Retire shuttles" poll

Is it time to retire the current space shuttles?

Yes...4
No...2

Well, Shuttle Atlantis lifted off without a problem today but faces issues of old age, space debris, risky Hubble Telescope repairs, docking with the ISS, and a trip back to Earth. The Shuttle Atlantis first saw service in October 1985 and has completed 29 successful missions during that 24 year period. It has traveled about 104,531 miles and spent about 257 days in flight. The major focus of this mission is to repair an aged and broken space telescope...just to squeeze a few more years from its probing eyes. The Hubble Telescope has been a problem child from the beginning and is dying. But it will be replaced by the Webb Telescope. Nevertheless, this repair mission is quite risky--some 5 hours of extra vehicular work in a very dirty area of space. The risk is so high that a second shuttle is ready to blast off if an emergency arises. All of the shuttles are old. They have been retrofitted and spiffed up over the years but it is still a vulnerable and expensive craft serving space exploration well beyond its prime. I think it is time to ground the vehicles and continue research on alternate vehicles...and vigorously explore the use of probes, satellites, and the like.

Shuttle Discovery is ready to GO...finally

At NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, a technician holds one of Discovery’s gaseous hydrogen flow control valves after its removal. The valves channel gaseous hydrogen from the main engines to the external tank.

Finally, after days of postponement, the Shuttle Discovery is poised for a crucial trip to the ISS. I still question this whole shuttle operation and in the long run mankind's space exploration. The shuttle has been grounded due to some mechanical malfunction involving valves holding the liquid fuel. Suppose this happened in deep space or on the surface of the moon or Mars? Phrases like: "Engineers installed new seals in a fuel vent line, hoping that will solve the problem..." and "Technicians were unable to find the exact cause of the leak." are not satisfactory statements for sound sense of security and problem resolution for manned space flight. I hope all goes good this early evening.

"Repaired space shuttle ready for launch try Sunday"

by

Irene Klotz

March 15th, 2009

Reuters

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) -- NASA will try again on Sunday to launch space shuttle Discovery on a construction mission to the International Space Station after fixing a fuel leak that triggered a delay last week.

Blastoff is set for 7:43 p.m. (2343 GMT) from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Engineers installed new seals in a fuel vent line, hoping that will solve the problem that postponed NASA's first launch attempt on Wednesday when hydrogen gas leaked from the shuttle's fuel tank, posing a fire hazard.

Technicians were unable to find the exact cause of the leak.

"I was a little surprised that we didn't find something more obvious because it was a healthy leak," shuttle launch director Mike Leinbach told reporters on Saturday.

Still, if the shuttle does not leak when it is fueled for flight on Sunday, it will be safe to fly, he added.

NASA plans to start filling the shuttle's tank with 500,000 gallons of liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen at about 10:30 a.m. (1430 GMT) on Sunday.

NASA has until Tuesday to launch the shuttle or face a delay until April 7 to avoid a schedule conflict with a Russia-led Soyuz mission to replace the station's prime crew.

Discovery will be carrying the fourth and final solar power module for the U.S. part of the station, a $100 billion project of 16 nations. The crew includes Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata, who will be left behind to serve as a station flight engineer and the first Japanese to live on the outpost.