Columbia

[Volker]

I am verry sad about the News from Texas. an other bad Day in the History from the NASA.

My Sympathy to the Familys where lost Wife and Husband.

Volker

[steve]

Agreed Volker-turning science fiction into reality can be a very dangerous business.

[Robotnut]

A loss of one diminishes us all...

Let our thoughts and sympathy go out to the families.

[Velocity]

It's a dangerous damned business. Nobody wants to dwell on the odds of failure of any given mission, but they're always stacked against you and no denying it. The real miracle of American manned spaceflight is that we haven't seen MORE such disasters. I mean, when you consider that an average of 18 YEARS passes between each NASA fatality, then you have to acknowledge that NASA must be especially blessed by God. But you can only beat the odds so many times, unfortunately. We can weep over it, or write songs and poetry and light candles, if it will make the rest of us feel better; but the fact is that these people (at NASA) are professionals of the highest order, they KNOW how the deck is stacked against success, and they still accept the challenge. And that's a quality to be admired rather than mourned.

Godspeed, Columbia.

[robert]

Well put.

I think because we go so long without any problems we tend to become complacent and take the whole shuttle program for granted. Saturday proved how wrong we are. Going into space is a dangerous business at best and I am sure that the shuttle crews, unlike the general public, are well aware of those risks at all times and yet still make it look both easy and safe. My hats off to them and there families, who live with those risks on a daily basis.

It is a shame though that this tragedy will probably result in another long delay to the space program. While I am all for determining the cause and preventing the same thing from happening in the future, it's frustrating to see how far behind we are getting on plans for a manned trip to Mars!

[Nikola Tesla]

While I am all for determining the cause and preventing the same thing from happening in the future, it's frustrating to see how far behind we are getting on plans for a manned trip to Mars!

Strangely enough, while this thread may at first seem off-topic, it actually leads right back to robots. I've been around long enough to have seen the entire US space program from its earliest days---and it has been a thrilling ride, even with its comparatively few tragedies. But, as our first manned interplanetary effort---the Apollo program---recedes into distant history, it's becoming apparent that we CANNOT AFFORD to keep designing and implementing the fiendishly complex systems necessary for human life support on extended space missions.

Something like 2/3 of the hardware, fuel and COST of each manned mission is devoted to creating a comfortable habitat and safe passage for these big, hairy human passengers. I think THIS is the biggest hinderance to our progress in space exploration---the fact that we keep trying to send humans out for what should otherwise be automated, robotic missions.

It's well-known that the Space Shuttle is entirely automated in its ascent and descent; indeed, the seven-man (multiracial, international, gender-correct) crews are there mainly for publicity and goodwill. But any given "routine" experimental mission could be attended quite adequately by a two-man crew. Even the Soviets have demonstrated that cargo runs to a space station can be fully automated. Yet, the US is still obsessed with building and launching these pressurized terrariums, which are INCREDIBLY fragile, dangerous and EXPENSIVE for extended human habitation.

From almost every angle---cost-effectiveness, human safety, service and reusability---it just makes SENSE to employ ROBOTS to carry out the exploration of our solar backyard. For 1/3 the cost of a manned mission, we could throw a hundred redundant automated systems into orbit for routine experimentation and supply runs to the Space Station. Without the extraneous cabins, airlocks and life-support hardware, our space vehicles and their diverse robot passengers could be streamlined (even miniaturized) for one-stage ascent and hyper-extended missions within the solar system---depending only on the longevity of electronics, firmware and fuel cells.

And when one of the spacecraft happens to disintegrate on reentry, it WON'T be such a tragedy in human terms.

;)