Boondoggle, Thy Name is "Gravity Probe B"

Space News ^ | December 19, 2003 | Brian Berger

[cogitator]

After String of Delays, Gravity Probe B Problems Continue

By BRIAN BERGER Space News Staff Writer

WASHINGTON — Gravity Probe B, a space-based physics experiment some 40 years in the making, is facing another potentially lengthy delay. The spacecraft was three days from rolling out to the launch pad at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. when NASA decided Nov. 15 to replace an improperly wired component that threatened to interfere with the sensitive experiment. Replacing the component will entail some disassembly of the spacecraft and additional testing.

The resulting delay, which could stretch into June, is expected to cost NASA $4 million a month, according to Rick Howard, deputy director of NASA’s astronomy and physics division. The project is already more than $100 million over budget. Gravity Probe B — a space-based experiment first proposed in 1962 to test Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity — has been in development for decades and has cost NASA well over $500 million to date. Launch of the spacecraft has been postponed at least six times since 1999.

NASA officials have threatened cancellation of the mission many times, but have never followed through. Gravity Probe B’s most recent brush with cancellation came earlier this year after NASA learned that four blown fuses discovered during testing would keep the spacecraft from launching in July as planned. NASA approved a $40 million recovery plan designed to get Gravity Probe B to the launch pad by November.

[cogitator]

And of course... it will probably prove that Einstein was right all along!

While I'm definitely an advocate of science and a robust space program, somebody should've pulled the plug on GP-B a couple of years ago.

[scooter2]

There is no gravity. The Earth sucks!

[GOP_1900AD]

NASA should cancel this, there are allegations of ChiCOM spying. Much of the work on the gyroscope was done in a lab at Stanford U. The security controls were poor - PRC Citizens on student visas did much of the work - there was never any real background checks; for all we know, as with past cases of spying by "students," they might have been PLA officers.

[Lokibob]

Isn't this the experiment that fell off the work bench a couple of years ago?

[Lokibob]

Nope, gravity got the wrong satellite:

Weather satellite damaged in factory mishap
Posted: Tue, Sep 9, 2003, 12:58 PM ET (1658 GMT)
A NOAA weather satellite under construction for launch later this decade was severely damaged in a factory accident on Saturday, Space News reported late Monday. The NOAA-N' spacecraft was being rotated from a vertical to horizontal position at a Lockheed Martin facility in Sunnyvale, California, when the spacecraft slipped off a cart and fell to the floor. The spacecraft suffered "severe damage" in the fall, according to an anomaly report obtained by Space News. Initial indications suggest that the spacecraft slipped because 24 bolts designed to secure the spacecraft to the cart were removed two days earlier by engineers working on another satellite, who then failed to document the removal of the bolts. The polar-orbiting spacecraft is not scheduled for launch until 2008, but Lockheed Martin officials were uncertain how much of an effect on the schedule the accident would have.

[Old Professer]

I fell off a 40 foot ladder once; luckily, I was only on the third step.

[jnarcus]

Part of the difficulty in doing research, particularly in pure physics, is that you cannot force quantum leaps in understanding or technology...I won't argue whether this bit of science should have been cancelled because there are pros and cons...I would only point out that THEORIES aren't science until tested in repeatable fashion. I would rather they took the time to rewire this bit of esoterica than let it launch and fail...Cheap and dirty, as recent Mars missions have proven, is a true waste of money

[Consort]

Gravity is the aether trying to reclaim its space by pressing down on all side of celectial bodies.

[cogitator]

I understand your argument -- and I agree that it should be fixed to work. I just can't believe it's taken so long and cost so much to get this thing up and running.

I'd rather that $500 million be spent on physics that might have a spinoff value, like particle physics leading to nuclear fusion.

Having said that, it's possible that the technology of the super-gyros on GP-B has spinoff value; I just don't know what/where that value would be utilized.

[RightWingAtheist]

How much of the budget overruns are actually due to the construction and execution of the space probe, and not due to financial and bureaucratic mismanagement?

Further understanding of gravity-be it through the Gravity Probe or the LIGO projects-is crucial if we are to properly understand the relationships between the fundamental forces, and there is still much we have to learn.

[RightWingAtheist]

Your expert opinion is needed :-)

[RightWhale]

The Michelson-Morley experiment was funded by A. Graham Bell. It wasn't cheap to float a ton of precision granite in mercury, but the government wasn't involved.

Flash forward: If Gates were worth anything in science or technology he could fund this and it would elevate him to an Alexander Graham Bell status. As it is, Gates billions are a joke and everybody knows it's because he is a bright hacker not a genius and his product is not inspired. Let him invest in his Indian labor pool, but to fund actual science? Ha! There are software geniuses, BTW.

[RadioAstronomer]

I have been looking forward to this mission for years. There is so much it can tell us. I will post more tonight!

[MyOptic]

I worked as a consultant for the company that was awarded the contract for working on the zerodur glass block that made up the housing for the gyros. They brought us in to try and teach machinists optical fabrication. The tolerances needed for this thing were unbelievable, extremely tough even for a master optician. They manufactured 3 housing blocks, one of them was destroyed during the rough machining process, and an optician trainee who was attempting to polish one of the precision lands with a weighted polishing lap by hand fractured the second. They trusted the same company with the second block to complete the polishing process. They had limited experience with any sort of optical fabrication, and the specs they were looking for were way, way beyond the capabilities of this shop. I felt really bad for the guy, who was absolutely sick with himself after the accident, and perturbed with Stanford University with giving the polishing operation to this shop with very little expertise in optical fabrication. This block had a million plus in material and man hours prior to the polishing operation, wiped out with one bad stroke.

[expatpat]

All that mercury! Did the Greenies know about this? Will there be a Congressional inquiry?

[RightWhale]

Ouch! That's right. Michelson-Morley would have been a lot more expensive if it were done now, no doubt. A special environmental building would have to be built, and that's for starters. The experiment might never have been done, and Einstein would have advanced to senior patent claim examiner and that would have been about it for physics.

[Looking for Diogenes]

NASA should cancel this, there are allegations of ChiCOM spying.

Oh no! If the ChiComs were to discover gravity we'd be in really bad shape. </sarcasm

But seriously, even if some of the technology was spyed upon how does that justify cancelling the project? We've already invested a ton of money into this scientific experiment. If it is cancelled that will all have been for nothing.

[cogitator]

I answered my own question by doing a bit of reading.

All of the pages (1-8) are interesting, but this one discusses spin-off benefits:

The Surprising Spin-Offs from Gravity Probe B: Schiff's Cargo

One of which is a better geoid (standard reference gravity surface) of the Earth, providing better sea surface height and surface change data.

[RightWingAtheist]

Great link!

[sonofatpatcher2]

Maybe they could bury it in the Big Dig ditch in Boston..

along with all the other Kennedys and DemocRtas!