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A Brick With Wings
Sacramento - Apr 21, 2003 In response to Gutierrez' complaint that NASA's own post-Challenger documents call for the probability of safe return to be 99.99%, NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe responded by calling that guideline a "grandiose requirement" which was in reality hopelessly impractical. The Panel was not amused. Gutierrez suggested that O'Keefe was "kicking the can down the road" by ignoring the problem until the development of the OSP, and this is "not acceptable". And the Panel, in its most recent official report, demanded that NASA cease dodging the issue and either devise a crew escape system or officially and publicly state why it believes that such a system is unworkable or unacceptable. But O'Keefe may well be right; such a system may be totally unworkable without destroying the Shuttle's ability to carry the Space Station's remaining modules up to it. The Shuttle has also survived 111 out of 112 reentry attempts -- again impressive, until you consider that all other reentry vehicles, designed as capsules, have carried out thousands of reentries over the decades (including dummy warheads on ballistic missile tests) with virtually no burn-ups. Capsules are self-stabilizing during a reentry. But a winged vehicle is self-unstabilizing as since it must reenter belly-first to spread out the temperature of frictional heating over as wide a part of its surface as possible, and engage throughout its reentry in extremely complex and lightning-fast readjustments of its control surface to keep from tumbling disastrously. Fall off that tightrope -- as Columbia did -- and the result is disaster, no matter what kind of heat-resistant tiles you have. And any attempt to design a crew capsule to survive such a reentry accident would be much more difficult even than designing a cabin launch escape system. It would have to survive the wholesale breakup of the rest of the vehicle around it without any serious damage to its heat shield -- vastly further increasing its weight, should such a system be possible at all. In short, the Shuttle, as a manned vehicle, remains a flying deathtrap, and very likely there is no workable way to change that fact. If it continues to fly for more than a few more years, then the odds of losing a third Shuttle and crew are, as Gutierrez said, very high.
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Columbia's Secrets Are Reel Enough
Sacramento - Apr 15, 2003The pieces of the puzzle of Columbia's fatal accident are suddenly starting to come together with dramatic speed -- although some major and important details remain puzzling. Mars: Settling In For The Long Wait 
South Bend - Apr 11, 2003The loss of the shuttle Columbia on February 1 has triggered an extensive re-examination of the space program by supporters and pundits alike. It has also stimulated renewed popular interest in a range of schemes for accelerating space exploration-especially for sending humans to Mars-some of which appear to be panaceas of little immediate practical value. Time To Cut The Umbilical Cord And Roar Into Space 
Pinson - Mar 24, 2003In a recent "Opinion Space" article, one bright man asked the (valid) question "Is The Shuttle Fatally Flawed?" The answer can only be: yes (with an asterisk *). The author of the above described column, Josef Pinkas, questioned the lateral position of the orbiter. But I must take issue with him there, writes Jeff Wright, even if thus is a popular position after the loss of both Challenger & Columbia. The Space Settlement Summit 
Scottsdale - Mar 20, 2003Some forty prominent members of the space community met earlier this month in Los Angeles to face the leadership challenge (see 3.04, An Open Challenge to Space Leadership,) raised by the Columbia disaster. It's said of a dancing bear that what amazes isn't how well it dances, but that it dances at all. This Space Settlement Summit was no Russian ballet, but it did a creditable little cha-cha. Is The Shuttle Fatally Flawed 
Prague - Mar 3, 2003After the recent loss of the Space Shuttle Columbia, Americans and Israelis are mourning the tragic deaths of the seven-crew members. This is a tragedy not only for them but also for all of us, because the brave astronauts sacrificed their lives for the progress of all mankind.
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