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NEWS > SCIENCE > SPACE SHUTTLE NARROWLY AVOIDS CRASHING IN FLORIDA
SPACE SHUTTLE NARROWLY AVOIDS CRASHING IN FLORIDA
March 29 2009
Cape Canaveral, FL – After completing its 13 day trip to the International Space Station the space shuttle discovery successfully set down at Kennedy Space Center on Sunday. The mission was deemed a success after delivering a 45 foot truss, a final set of solar arrays, and a replacement urine filtration system. NASA officials were reportedly pleased at the progress of the station, as well as the successful re-entry and landing of the spacecraft saving them once again from the public embarrassment of a massive mid-air explosion.
It’s been over 6 years since the last space shuttle disaster when Columbia disintegrated over the Texas sky. Though there have only been two catastrophic accidents in the over 30 years of space shuttle flights, space flights are still widely considered the most dangerous form of travel. The explosions of both the ‘Columbia’ and the ‘Challenger’ are still widely considered two of the most spectacular and awe-inspiring events in American history and many are hoping for another such event before the shuttle program is shut down completely next year.
“There isn’t a whole lot that gets people excited about space flight anymore but explosions are definitely one of them. As happens with many
experiences, repetition breeds apathy. People have become used to normal space flights and it’s become about as exciting as going to the supermarket,” said Scrape TV Science analyst Dr. Howard Poe. “The truth is as well that people have had a change in their expectations of space and space flight. Movies like ‘Star Wars’ have challenged people’s expectations of what being in space should be and unless we get to that point people are going to be disappointed, unless of course there are more explosions.”
Few in the scientific community expect that space travel as depicted in films like those in the ‘Star Wars’ saga will ever be possible. They also deem it unlikely that there will ever be a need to design an orbiting space station the size of the moon and equipped with a giant laser.
“There is something in the human spirit that seeks exploration for the sake of exploration. Whether it is crossing Europe and Asia for the first time, sailing the oceans, discovering the America’s, or going into space we have this burning desire to discover for the sake of discovery,” continued Poe. “For that reason alone it might be worth building a giant space station and go around destroying planets, because we can. Basic physics will disallow things like superfast space dogfights like you see in those movies, but giant lasers are entirely possible which would of course help satisfy that other innate human desire for massive explosions.”
Scientists traditionally point to the earliest days of humankind as we moved from territory to territory in search of food and shelter as the root cause for our wanderlust and desire for discovery. As yet there is no prehistoric explanation for our affection for blowing things up.
“Explosions are particularly appealing for men but there is nothing in the prehistoric or fossil record to indicate that early man used explosions as he expanded out into the savannahs and expanded
his territorial reach. It would be cool of course, but there is no evidence to show a reason for that love for blowing things up,” continued Poe. “Reasons aside someone
somewhere along the line realized that explosions were good for making money and as technology has improved so have the tools for catastrophic destruction. Sure lives can be lost, but that is more than made up for by the massive fireball and flying debris. NASA of course has realized this and those space shuttle explosions have been about the only thing that has kept the program afloat, so to speak. It’s difficult to justify multi-billion dollar budgets when absolutely no one is paying attention.”
The space shuttle program will come to an end in 2010 and will eventually be replaced by the ‘Orion’ program in 2014. As yet NASA has no official plans to blow up any of the remaining space shuttles or the ‘Orion’ craft.
Anna Phillips, Science Correspondent
NEWS > SCIENCE > SPACE SHUTTLE NARROWLY AVOIDS CRASHING IN FLORIDA
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