26. January 2011 by RC Davison.

Friday, the 28^th of January is the 25th anniversary of the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster. Hard to believe it was that long ago. As I’ve been watching the recent developments with the shuttle Discovery (STS-133), with the series of delays due to faulty valves early on and then the discovery of numerous cracked stringers in the external fuel tank, it’s got me wondering if we are seeing a repeat of the same mentality that caused the disasters with Challenger in 1986 and Columbia in 2003.

The O-ring problem on the solid rocket boosters that doomed Challenger first occurred on STS-2, the second flight of the shuttle Columbia that occurred on November 12, 1981. The problem was looked at by Thiokol, the company that designed the boosters, and they did some testing at elevated stress levels that turned up nothing, so it was written off as an anomaly. But, for the 15 shuttle launches that occurred between 1984 and the Challenger accident, all but three showed O-ring damage. It had not caused a problem up to that point and this deviation was normalized as routine—until January 28, 1986. The Challenger crew paid the cost of that behavior with their lives.

The same normalization of deviations applied to the foam and ice coming off the large external fuel tank that frequently pelted the shuttles, damaging their delicate ceramic tiles that form the heat shield for the vehicle. Foam falls off all the time, but it never caused a problem, so it must be okay to keep launching. February 1, 2003 proved that to be wrong when Columbia (STS-107) reentered the atmosphere with a hole in a leading edge carbon-carbon panel of the left wing, which allowed super-hot gases to destroy the structural integrity of the wing and the break up of the shuttle. Another crew paid the ultimate price for NASA accepting the abnormal as normal.

Today we are looking at the final launch of Discovery sometime towards the end of February 2011, postponed from the initial launch date back in November 2010. Did we get lucky this time? Could these cracked stringers in the main fuel tank have caused a failure of the tank as the shuttle raced into orbit? Equally important; is this a problem that has been there all along and it’s been accepted as the norm? I don’t know. I do know that I’m glad they found it and that repairs are under way to fix the problem. Hopefully we will see another successful mission for Discovery at the end of February. With the end of the shuttle program looming ever closer, NASA needs to be even more vigilant to ensure that the final missions launch and land without any problems.

If you want a nitty-gritty view of NASA from the inside, check out Mike Mullane’s book Riding Rockets. It gives you a peak behind the golden curtain NASA puts up for the general public. Very interesting.

Till next time,

RC Davison

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24. January 2011 by RC Davison.

     The European Southern Observatory has delivered one of the most beautiful images of the Orion Nebula that I’ve seen.

     Using their 2.2 meter telescope at the Silia Observatory in Chile, with a series of 5 different filters, the image is close to what one would observe with the naked eye.  But, one needs to remember that the CCDs can collect photons of light over time and build up an image that we humans would not be able to see with the physiology of our eyes.  We wouldn’t be able to see the delicate gossamer structure with the subtle color changes that the CCD can.  So enjoy this beautiful image on your computer!

Orion is riding high in the cold winter night sky and one can easily see the Orion Nebula just below the belt of Orion on the constellation’s left side, as can be seen below.

    Orion harbors many wonders, including the red supergiant Betelgeuse marking his upper right shoulder and Rigel, a blue supergiant that marks Orion’s left foot.  Betelgeuse is so large that if placed at the center of our Solar System it would extend beyond Mars and the asteroid belt!  Another jewel that lies within the constellation is the Horsehead nebula, located near the left-most star making up Orion’s belt.

     Next time you’re out and about at night, check out Orion, and if you have a pair of binoculars or a telescope available, take some time to check out the jewels that lie within the Orion constellation.

Till next time,

RC Davison

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19. January 2011 by RC Davison.

     Check out the audio promo for ORBITAL MANEUVERS at Drabblecast.org, a great Sci-Fi short story audio podcast site.  The host, Norm Sherman did a great job putting the promo together, along with the really neat feature short story (with adult themes), A Matter of Size by Robert Jeschonek.

If you’d like to give the book a try, the first 7 chapters are available at the ORBITAL MANEUVERS website.  If you want more, you can download the first half of the book in several different electronic formats free at Smashwords.com.

If you like Sci-Fi you will do yourself a big favor by checking out Drabblecast.org.  Norm puts on some really amazing short story productions by some very talented authors, with top-notch narration by Norm and other voice actors, music and special effects, it’s a very entertaining half hour.  His site won the  2010 Parsec Award for “Best Speculative Fiction Magazine” - a very well deserved honor.

Till next time,

RC Davison

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6. January 2011 by RC Davison.

     The Andromeda galaxy is one of my favorite galaxies, so the latest images from the European Space Agency (ESA) are a real treat.  Using the Hershel observatory to take Andromeda’s portrait in the infrared and the XMM-Newton X-ray observatory to capture the galaxy’s image in the high energy spectrum, ESA has produced a composite image that shows the star birthing and dying regions of the galaxy in the highest resolution to date.

      The top right image show the galaxy in the infrared as taken by Hershel.  This shows the regions of the galaxy where there are concentrations of dust that harbor the development and birth of stars.  The image at the lower right shows the regions hot with X-rays, which is indicative of gas being heated to extremely high temperatures from the shockwaves produced when stars meet their end as novas and supernovas. X-rays can also be generated as one star pulls material from another in a binary pair.  This gas is heated to high temperatures as it is accelerated in its fall to the parasite star.

     The image also shows a high concentration of X-rays at the center of the galaxy, which is to be expected because of the high density of stars there and the resident supermassive black hole that resides at the core of the galaxy. If you look closely at the X-ray image there appears to be a bubble surrounding the core of the galaxy.  Possibly a shockwave propagating outward from the core, indicating a more active period of the galaxy’s massive black hole. Be sure to check the links to see the all the detail in these great high-resolution images.

     Take a look at ESA’s website for more information on these new images of Andromeda.

Till next time,

RC Davison

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5. January 2011 by RC Davison.

     The power of using infrared light to peer through the dust in the cosmos is clearly demonstrated in this stunning image of the Lagoon Nebula (M8) from the European Southern Observatory’s (ESO) VISTA telescope at the Paranal Observatory in Chile.

     The top view shows a vast field of stars, many of which are cool red stars, but it is the hot young stars that radiate prodigiously in the ultraviolet that help the Lagoon nebula glow in the visible range as seen in the bottom view.

Here is a nice video that fades from visual to infrared views of the Lagoon nebula.

Check out some larger images and more information at ESO’s website…

Till next time,

RC Davison

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