More than hindsight, we need foresight to go on (Buzz Aldrin's NASA/Columbia Shuttle editorial)

Houston Chronicle ^ | Feb. 3, 2003, 7:05PM | BUZZ ALDRIN

[fourdeuce82d]

They were just doing their duty. They weren't offered a chance to respond. They died doing their duty.

With all due respect to Mr. Aldrin- there is no damn "JUST" about it, not when the duty they were performing comes with the risks that it did, and requires as much dedication and excellence to fulfill.

[red-dawg]

This catastrophe might have been avoidable if there had been a discrete, survivable escape pod that could separate from the orbiter as it began to break up.

That only works if:

1)The crew are aware of the impending danger.

2)Power is still available.

I don't think either of those were the case.
"Roger,uh Bu..."

What I would like to see is a direct synchronization of the video of the orbiter breaking up plus the audio plus the telemetry data together in one presentation. We could learn a lot from that.

[bonesmccoy]

Dr. Aldrin's policy statement is correct.

Anyone really involved in the manned space program would see it.

Clinton's Administration essentially killed our manned space effort for 10 years.

We've ended up with an ISS that is more Russian and ours and a now grounded shuttle fleet.

Bush 43 needs to point to left field and hit another homer.

Only, this homer will change the course of science and aeronautics for our nation for the next 40 years.

[TomServo]

Buzz kicks ass.

[JennysCool]

Agree 100 percent!

[GovernmentShrinker]

It MIGHT be possible to do without power if the "escape pod" is constructed as a segment which the astronauts are already in, and which is designed to survive the break-up of the rest of the craft. Deploying parachutes could probably be accomplished automatically, by built in contraptions on the exterior which would be triggered by the force of the passing atmostphere, and be triggered sequentially to deal with the fact that first couple of chutes would almost certainly be destroyed by force and heat very quickly after deploying (but perhaps not before accomplishing some deceleration).

[redbaiter]

Some cheeseball black-helicopter Michael Moore-wannabe (gawd!) chased Aldrin around with a camera, heckling him with idiot questions about the moon landing. Aldrin clobbered him.

[Young Werther]

I received my MBA in Aug of '78. I wrote more than a few papers about the coming of the "space truck". The shuttle was to be an inexpensive airline type spacecraft with quick turn around and low launch costs.

I wrote to Cong. Pepper who headed the Sub committee on space and science. He sent me a box of congressional reports and papers that spoke of a marvelous machine. The Enterprise was to be made flight worthy after its initial drop tests and launch stand/test article usage. Never funded by Congress the Enterprise has sat moldering in a hanger At Dulles Airport since 1985.

The follow on to the ceramic tiles was to be a metallic heat shield, not unlike the material tested for the VentureStar orbital vehicle. This material now sits on the shelf but Congress never funded in the 80s when it should have.

We must wrest control of Space from NASA and give it to our educational system to develop commerically, technically, socially, and culturally. NASA is beaurcratic and needs to be replaced.

See my article about Space University at www.nssnt.org

[Jim Noble]

>>That only works if...<<

I think he means having the crew sit inside a reentry survivable "egg" on the way down.

If they make it to approach, fine. If not, the shuttle is pulverized, the egg falls free, and is "Soyuz-soft" landed by parachute.

[TomServo]

Didn't he do that to some weirdo?

He sure did. More power to him.

[weegee]

Don't know what we can expect from George W. Bush on NASA. He never visited Johnson Space Center when he was Governor and this is his first visit as President.

That said, I agree with how we've gotten locked into a space station that does nothing to expand our space exploration outward.

The Russians have seemed to take more of a capitalist agenda to their space program than the US has considering they charge for space tourists. America holds the patents on some space program originated technologies but some of the products in use are not even made in the US. I'm not talking about things being made for the space program, rather things that are being sold using technology we pioneered (and see no $$$ on). I figure that "we" get money for satellite launches and maybe some of the science experiments.

The moon program astronauts I've spoken with feel let down that the space program has gone no farther with manned space exploration missions. They know that they will not live long enough to see any further manned space voyages.

[weegee]

It's self defense when someone hits a crazed stalker who is conducting an "ambush interview".

[Kevin Curry]

Buzz Aldrin's opinion stands honestly and graciously on its own. He didn't show the Challenger astronauts any disrespect. He showed them the same stoic, calmly reasoned, unemotional respect that they would have shown him. They were his peers. You are not. You are an outsider.

On this issue at least, his opinion is worth much; yours is worth squat.

[Kevin Curry]

Or the Columiba astronauts, for that matter.

[dead]

He's politely trying to say that the international space station is the stupidest idea in the history of space travel.

I'd say he also thinks the ISS is merely the UN office with the best view, but then I'd be putting words in his mouth.

At this point, it's time to cut our losses and let that boondoogle drop into the sea. It's time to privatize the space program and get the hell out of low earth orbit. Colonize the moon, with an eye on Mars.

[KingNo155]

at 12,00+ mph what can slow u down? LOL parachutes? if the whole thing burned up what is a sail/ parachute going to do for you. I drove a car over 200mph w chutes deployed and didn't think i would stop in time before the wall came over the horizon, luckly i did! all this hindsight talk is unproductive, dear old buzz is blowin smoke up our ass trying to be self important and pretending he has some answer when hes just as puzzled as the rest of us.

[ARCADIA]

If it worked for Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo, it can work for a shuttle escape capsule. IIRC they used a series of timed parachutes starting with some very small ones to decelerate the thing.

[Vortex]

Since there was radar imagery of the debris after Columbia broke up, I wondered if debris prior to that would show up on radar, also. The below link is to an archive site for radar images. This particular one is for Amarillo. It appears that possibly there was radar indicated debris at 7:50am CST Southeast of Amarillo.

http://www.rap.ucar.edu/cgi-bin/neilley/NIDS_archive?Radar=AMA&Composite=NONE&Start_date=20030201&Start_time=13&Duration=120&Frequency=0&Parameter=1

It certainly does look like the event on and after 8:00am CST was picked up.

Thoughts?

Note: this site will automatically remove images, so this link may not work after a day or so.