NASA - Return to Flight

[DragonDude]

http://www.nasa.gov/returntoflight/main/index.html?skipIntro=1

It's time to make history again.

All systems are go in roughly two hours at the time of this post. Let's all cross our fingers and hope NASA's decision of ignoring the problems won't prove disastrous.

 

[|Overlord|]

well , things can happen , but i still remember the awful Challenger disaster (the last one on record and from what I can recall is the Challenger disaster where people found various stuff from the explosion and then tried to sell it on ebay , where that tile fell onto the wing)

edit : oh , it's already happened , bah it's late here in aus anyway , probably hear about it in the news or something tomorrow.

 

[Tassadar]

I'm glad the space program was started again earlier today. Flying in those things is way too dangerous for me.
Check out this picture of the launch. Pretty cool.

 

[Sicron]

I just dont understand why they need to go to the moon again I mean...whats so special about the moon, they should spend more time developing a new space ship that allows people to go to Mars...but even if they make it too Mars....they probably wont be able to land =\

 

[Majin_You]

I just dont understand why they need to go to the moon again I mean...whats so special about the moon, they should spend more time developing a new space ship that allows people to go to Mars...but even if they make it too Mars....they probably wont be able to land =\

Err...I don't think they'll be flying a shuttle like that to Mars or the Moon. As far as I know, they are looking to catch up with the ISS.

That being said - why not go to the moon? It's still an object of geological interest. More specifically, people are interested in determining the origin of the moon (with the leading theory being the collision-adhesion theory). Bear in mind that our moon is the only really large moon that belongs to a terrestrial planet. Figuring out the origin of the moon could also be a good step in helping to figure out more about the Earth's history, as well as the history of our solar system.

 

[Eon]

There is a Mars mission planned in 2018. History Channel ftw. There's still plenty of crap on the moon to dig up.

 

[Ravendust]

Check out this picture of the launch. Pretty cool.

Does that look like a massive smoky wang to anyone else?

In all seriousness, this is pretty cool, everyone loves space travel in the news.

 

[itr]

There's still plenty of crap on the moon to dig up.

Plenty of cheese to go around! :yes:

 

[TwisteR]

I was gonna go watch it take off, but I forgot all about it. =\

 

[Sicron]

http://www.nasa.gov/externalflash/rtf_front/index.html

they have a launch video twister

 

[Scruff]

well , things can happen , but i still remember the awful Challenger disaster (the last one on record and from what I can recall is the Challenger disaster where people found various stuff from the explosion and then tried to sell it on ebay , where that tile fell onto the wing)

edit : oh , it's already happened , bah it's late here in aus anyway , probably hear about it in the news or something tomorrow.

Columbia was the last shuttle mission, it was the one where the piece of tile fell off and damaged the shuttle. I'm guessing that was just a typo though .

Still, it's good to know that disasters like this don't scare people away from trying again. I'm glad that after 2 years the shuttle is going back up, and I can only hope that they come back safely.

 

[|Overlord|]

Columbia was the last shuttle mission, it was the one where the piece of tile fell off and damaged the shuttle. I'm guessing that was just a typo though .

Still, it's good to know that disasters like this don't scare people away from trying again. I'm glad that after 2 years the shuttle is going back up, and I can only hope that they come back safely.

Oh now i remeber the name , thnaks for rejogging my memory.

Well , a repeat of the same thing has happened , a tile has fallen off. Only the next two weeks will tell if the crew will make it back home alive and well , or if they burn to a cinder on re entry all thanks to nasa (That would be like going to hell before you actually die)

 

[Iyce Da Kidd]

what exactly are they doing? my connection is limited, and it takes a long arse time to access a page.

 

[DragonDude]

Oh, people are still plenty scared. The committee that reviewed the Columbia disaster was heavily involved in modifying the ship, though, and it may have helped tremendously.
Hundreds of extra temperature and motion sensors were added to the shuttle wings, and many video cameras were mounted to the fuel tanks to watch the ship disengage. These making certain that if something did go wrong, we'd see it, and fix it before the shuttle re-enters the atmosphere. They've also added a camera mounted on an arm that can be controlled from within the ship. If something is damaged, they can get a view of it with that device. Not to mention the ship will get a heavy look-over when it reaches the ISS.

Most of the mission involves the ISS. They'll be bringing supplies, new modules, and replacement gyroscopes to it. They'll also be performing a few spacewalks to install the new equipment and gryoscopes to the ISS.

After seeing the launch, and hearing about all they added to the shuttle, I think it's safe to say that we'll see no big suprises upon re-entry.

 

[Smith|]

;_;. Bird got pwned by the big, old space shuttle.

 

[Tassadar]

I saw the bird thing on the news. That looks like a damn big bird. I wonder what it was.

 

[Suh Dude]

It's a small ufo......jkl
Damn it, I forgot about the launch.

 

[Prozac]

Err...I don't think they'll be flying a shuttle like that to Mars or the Moon. As far as I know, they are looking to catch up with the ISS.

That being said - why not go to the moon? It's still an object of geological interest. More specifically, people are interested in determining the origin of the moon (with the leading theory being the collision-adhesion theory). Bear in mind that our moon is the only really large moon that belongs to a terrestrial planet. Figuring out the origin of the moon could also be a good step in helping to figure out more about the Earth's history, as well as the history of our solar system.

Wasn't it caused my a giant meteor hit the earth millions of years ago
which caused the moon to break of. and start orberting the earth?
atleast that's what they said on the discovery channel and it would also explain why the moon slowly drifts away from the earth!

 

[Majin_You]

Wasn't it caused my a giant meteor hit the earth millions of years ago
which caused the moon to break of. and start orberting the earth?
atleast that's what they said on the discovery channel and it would also explain why the moon slowly drifts away from the earth!

That, Prozac, is a nice, compact summary of the collision-adhesion theory. So, yes, to answer your question - that is what the leading theory states.

Of course, further study is always needed to prove/disprove theories, hence the talk of further missions to the moon, more likely of a geological nature.

 

[Sicron]

could be possible since they know the moon is a dead "planet" but...how the hell would it have gotten round then?