February 11, 2003
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Cosmic bolt probed in shuttle disaster: Scientists poring over 'infrasonic' sound waves (Sabin Russell, February 7, 2003, San Francisco Chronicle)Federal scientists are looking for evidence that a bolt of electricity in the upper atmosphere might have doomed the space shuttle Columbia as it streaked over California, The Chronicle has learned.Investigators are combing records from a network of ultra-sensitive instruments that might have detected a faint thunderclap in the upper atmosphere at the same time a photograph taken by a San Francisco astronomer appears to show a purplish bolt of lightning striking the shuttle.
Should the photo turn out to be an authentic image of an electrical event on Columbia, it would not only change the focus of the crash investigation, but it could open a door on a new realm of science.
"We're working hard on the data set. We have an obligation," said Alfred Bedard, a scientist at the federal Environmental Technology Laboratory in Boulder, Colo. He said the lab was providing the data to NASA but that it was too early to draw any conclusions from the sounds of the shuttle re-entry.
The lab has been listening to the sounds of ghostly electromagnetic phenomena in the upper atmosphere, dubbed sprites, blue jets and elves. For some time, scientists have speculated on whether these events could endanger airliners or returning spacecraft.
A study conducted 10 years ago for NASA found that there is a 1-in-100 chance that a space shuttle could fly through a sprite, although it concluded that the consequences of such an event were unclear. And in 1989, an upper- atmospheric electrical strike "shot down" a high-altitude NASA balloon 129,000 feet over Dallas.
That's about the ratio for the shuttle, right? This would be the one out of a 120+. There will be folks who say that's an unacceptable risk, but it--even including seven lives--seems a fair price to pay for the adventure. Posted by Orrin Judd at February 11, 2003 8:29 PM
I object to paying for adventures I don't get to experience personally. It was a joyride of no national or scientific merit, and I would have expected conservatives to insist that it be financed on that basis.
Posted by: Harry at February 11, 2003 10:04 PMAs brave and accomplished the astronauts are, it's not like they're discovering new continents or trade routes like Sir Francis Drake or Lewis and Clark.
They're doing stuff like examining the effect of weightlessness on yeast cells.
Frankly man should be in space when it's possible for us to colonise new worlds or construct independently viable space stations.
What's being done right now is a vanity trip and the work should be left to the robots until we're actually needed up there.
Ali:
We're a vain species.
If they really are joyrides, then we need to not only support the Russians in their selling of the third Soyuz seats, but do the same with the US space program. Maybe add a checkbox on the 1040 forms-- a $50 checkoff gets you an entry into the Taxpayer-In-Space Program lottery.
Posted by: Raoul Ortega at February 11, 2003 10:42 PMI'll throw my lot in with Harry and Ali. At $0.5 Billion per ride (at the least
) and the staggering odds of 1/100 of death & destruction, the rewards had damn well better be worth it. They aren't.