Are we ready for space shuttle jokes??

I agree that it does seem a bit hard to feel so much more sorrow for these 7 than, lets say, a group of 7 business men travelling on some interstate somewhere today that all get killed in an accident somewhere - I mean that wouldn't even make the news, but they would all have families etc.

I think the real sadness is that the Space Program represents the 'best that we can do' in terms of our best scientists, engineers, planners, astronauts etc - and also because 'we' have all funded it. There is so much more of our pride and identity wrapped up in that space shuttle than in the mini-bus on I75 that I was talking about.

 

They have a way home whenever they want. There is a Russian reentry vehicle at the space station supposedly.

I can't believe that there was no way to check the ceramic tiles while they were in space for 16 days though. BUt as they always say hind sight is 20/20.

RIP for the seven travellers.

 

Murdered?

You mean the astronauts?

 

sorry about the "jack ass" comment, just poor timing. It was kind of funny, which is probably why it pissed me off so bad... . Still think the thread needs to go away though...Mongo??????

 

On the tiles....
Why couldn't they have checked the tiles? They do have the ability for space walks don't they? Do they not have cameras that they could have put on a boom to take a look? Some guy they interviewed mentioned about spy cameras up there looking at the Orbiter.
Another former NASA guy slipped a bit and suggested that the deaths were not instant. I don't think so either. If it was tile related the heat up would not be instant. Same with losing control of the orbiter.
Why not put in the black boxes now?

 

There were no jet packs on board and no replacement tiles. Also, even if they had known there was a problem, they would have either starved to death or ran out of air before we could get up there to get them. Also, there is almost no chance of us being able to connect two ships in space as of now, or so NASA says. They should either scrap the whole space program ($500 million per flight feeds a lot of homeless people) or put a system in place where they can launch a rescue team quickly to recover problem plagued crews. IMHO Just a sad, sad thing.

 

In my humble opinion, I think there could be some steps made towards rescue options etc. But at the end of the day, space travel is inherantly dangerous. I believe that, while being a tradgedy, the losses experienced are still within acceptable levels for something of this level of danger.

We know that some allied soldiers will die in Iraq very soon, but knowing this will not stop the war on its own. Its the same with the space program. These are not the last astronauts to die, and nor should we expect them to be.

 

"Lighten up, Francis."

(And c'mon - admit it - you smiled, didn't you?)

BTW, have you ever heard of the term "projection", used in psychology? I'll do a quick search and see if I can find a nice article on it for you.

 

1. No they probably didn't die "instantly" they would have known something was wrong for a few seconds to a minute. But when she started to break up, the spin/shock would have been like a high speed car accident. They would have been mercifully unconscious by the time the crew compartment became compromised.
2. IMHO, they need to put the shuttles out to pasture... I've always considered the shuttles an excessively risky way to get into space. The lift mechanism was a convervative compromise back when the shuttle was being designed. Originally they were going to build a 747 sized "momma" plane that would take the shuttle up to the stratosphere, and then shuttle would detach and continue the rest of the way to orbit. But Carter and congress cut NASAs budget and they have to take the cheap shortcut of using rockets. On the way down, slamming yourself into an atmosphere at orbital speeds is always going to be dangerous.
We need to buy/use Russian Enirga rockets until the real space plane is ready.

3. The old NASA jokes are gonna get dusted off eventually, I probably feel worse than most about what happened, I've been a "space nut" my whole life, but we need to get over it.
so...

What does "N" "A" "S" "A" stand for?

 

wow...2 whole days

I was wondering how long it would take for someone to blame this on a Democratic prez's administration.

You guys are so predictable...geez!

Nice going Tankboy...you get the doorprize.

 

Re: wow...2 whole days

Its not blame just the facts...

 

Eerie. I was thinking about that same joke last Saturday. I'm pretty ignorant re: the whole space thing, are all missions comprised of seven crew members?

BTW: I was in 5th grade when Challenger failed. And I can still remember to this day thinking that joke was clever; not funny, but clever that someone would make that association. Like "What does 'WACO' stand for?" when the Branch Davidian thing was going on.

Today I find it neither clever nor funny. Sophomoric, perhaps, but not "ha-ha" funny...

-Wish

 

Humor -- No. I may have heard 9/11 jokes, but they were aimed at the persons who begat that tragedy, not the victims.

I consider humor about the shuttle as appropriate as humor about the worst possible scenario that can happen at the track.

There will be those who will question the wisdom of sending humans on highly dangerous and risky journeys. Exploring the \New World\ was risky and dangerous business. I do not know how many died during the journey to the western hemishpere. but I have to believe there were many. You decide if their efforts were worth it -- to you.

Humans will continue to engage in dangerous ventures because humans want to explore, discover, to find the limits. We do this at the track, when we try to find a new personal best lap time, to make a pass where we have not tried one before, to finish even one place higher on the results sheet.

Godspeed, Crew of Columbia.

 

Need Another Seven Astronauts

 

I find myself asking why no jet packs for a spacewalk if needed

You know, the sad thing is that I read a story today where NASA says not so, a spokemans said that the Alantis is ready for rollout to the pad & although many countdown shortcuts would have to take place, they could have took off with a min crew of 2 if they had known they had to, it could have hooked up with the shuttle by weds. Remember, I didn't dream this up, I just read a quote from NASA who were asked if in this case it could be done & they said yes.

Of course, there is not always a shuttle ready for rollout to the pad & there are not always spacewalk jetpacks so the crew can check their craft. I would think in the future this would change.

 

It was pointed out in the morning newspaper that by distance travelled, there is no safer method of transportation than the shuttle. Statistically it is "safer than riding a tricycle in your living room." Just like taking a 747 is many many times safer than driving a car.

You wouldn't think so from watching CNN.

I hope the investigations are conclusive, changes can be made and the shuttle program can eventually resume. I think the crew of the Columbia would have wanted the same thing.

My condolences to their family and friends.

 

They were not trained for space walk.