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The Space Shuttle Challenger disaster and what we learned from it

Space Shuttle Challenger

Space Shuttle Challenger

There are certain critical moments in American history that leave a permanent mark on the minds and memories of the people who witnessed it. In the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, people could close their eyes and still vividly picture sights of men and women jumping out of the World Trade Center towers to their death. Those who saw live coverage of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy or heard soon after the fact still probably remember exactly where they were and what they were doing. This kind of flashbulb memory also applies to the failed launch of the Space Shuttle Challenger in January of 1986. Of course, the Challenger disaster is notable for the very public and very sudden loss of multiple human lives. In the popular use of the word, the 1986 Space Shuttle Challenger mission was an American tragedy, and seven good people were lost in its disintegration.

Unfortunately, the real tragedy surrounding the events of the Challenger is that the cause of the problem was probably preventable, and at the very least, the decision to launch was definitely preventable. In physical terms, the failure of the spacecraft as a whole was prompted by an initial failure of the O-ring seal on the shuttle’s solid rocket booster. From there, hot gas leaked to the outside and affected the attachment of the booster, which would lead to structural problems with the external tank of the Challenger and the eventual breaking apart of the space shuttle. Challenger team officials later would concede that prior to the launch of the spacecraft, there were concerns about certain conditions on the day of the launch as well as lack of included emergency safety procedures. Regarding the conditions for launch, on the day of the Space Shuttle Challenger mission, temperatures were at or below freezing, and even though the performance of the O-ring under such stress was considered questionable, the launch was still allowed to proceed. It also seems that NASA was a little overconfident when it came to precautions taken for the Challenger. There was no reliable backup should the O-ring fail to seal, nor were there any ejection seats in place, so even if crew members did survive the launch, they would not have survived the craft’s fall into the sea.

Aside from what we learned about the physics of NASA spacecraft, we also learned a great deal about the psychology of the event and the dangers of too little information. The Challenger fiasco served as another powerful reminder of the nature of flashbulb memories, but also gave us insight into how an entire organization can be primed into putting aside their better judgment (regarding the O-rings) for the sake of leadership’s insistence on deadlines, or more generally, the failure of people to take individual responsibility and act while as a member of the group. Furthermore, the absence of information was not only dangerous to the sanctity of the Space Shuttle Challenger mission, but also NASA’s reputation. Their silence on the nature of the failure prompted inaccurate theories by the media in the following days, obscuring the true nature of the failure for generations to come and reflecting poorly on those who decided to proceed with the launch.

Making astronomy exciting for kids

In the wake of federal No Child Left Behind legislation, it is incumbent upon today’s educators to be well trained and meet certain educational standards. The increased reliance of testing as part of these changes to the educational landscape has placed a greater demand on schools to provide results by hitting minimum scores and percentages. However, these figures don’t really mean much to the individual student and, worse yet, may be an even stronger influence on some kids to drop out of school. Already, school is a hard sell to children, as memorization drills and teaching to the test cause many children to regard school, learning and fun as separate concepts. In terms of a specific subject, astronomy, taught right, is a tremendously interesting and informative field with tons to explore. Of course, even the most dry information on astronomy and things like stellar evolution can be intriguing to someone who loves astronomy. For kids, there need to be some bells and whistles, so to speak, for a scientific concept to catch and hold their attention. In other words, the presentation should be exciting without sacrificing information. The following are suggestions for enlivening astronomy for kids: 1. Use fun projects … Continue reading

Sources of astronomy news

Usually, it takes an event of cataclysmic proportions for a bit of astronomy news to make national news. From time to time, the word that an asteroid or meteorite is passing close to the Earth makes a blip on our radar, as people undoubtedly think back to the disaster movies perpetuated by Hollywood where impending doom lies in the form of an intergalactic rock hurtling towards our planet. A few years back, though, it was a simple decision of the International Astronomical Union that turned astronomy news into fodder for water-cooler discussion. At the 2006 assembly in Prague, the IAU decided to make Pluto, previously considered as the final planetary representative of our solar system, a dwarf planet, effectively downgrading its status. For people who had grown up thinking there are nine planets in our solar system and fans of mnemonic devices that perpetuated this belief, the news came as an unwelcome surprise, and to this day, is still argued and bantered about. Again, though, the Pluto story and asteroid warnings are deviations from the norm. Astronomy articles in the newspaper are likely to be relegated to the back pages of a particular section. If you are keen on finding … Continue reading

Facts on constellations

Several stars in our universe are notable on their own merit. Sol, our sun, is indeed a star, even though we tend think of stars as little orbs of light that dot our skies and exist millions of miles away. Polaris, the North Star, an important reference point in the sky for navigators in the pre-GPS era, is also given its own place on the mantle of our collective recognition of stars. Other stars visible in our night skies, meanwhile, are better understood in relation to one another and are identifiable to even young children based on their shape. A certain grouping of stars that has been identified for the spatial relationship among stars or has otherwise been named for its shape is known as an asterism, or more commonly, a constellation. Constellations are one of the phenomena of astronomy that make it so endearing to its students. The study of astrology and reading the constellations, while dubious as a legitimate science and despite being a source of revenue for some, is often a fun pastime for people. Going back in time, some groups even attached a special meaning or power to these constellation groups, and even today, some people … Continue reading

What to look for in a telescope

Astronomy is a difficult field to get into without the right conditions. For the amateur astronomer, of course, you will want to make sure you have a good location above all from which to view any stars, moons, planets or constellations. If you live in, say, an urban area where visibility is often obscured by cloud cover/pollution and there are a number of bright lights being shone that might interfere with the natural illumination of stellar bodies, the prospect of stargazing might be a lost endeavor from the start. Likewise, if you are trying to orient yourself to the stretches of the Milky Way Galaxy and you are trying to accomplish this with a starter set of binoculars, you might have quite a task on your hands. The proverbial weapon of choice for the starting stargazer and serious astronomy enthusiast is the telescope. Telescopes are common fixtures in many people’s mountain homes, and a starter telescope might be a fun solution for what gift to get a child, especially if they are really interested in the sciences. Who knows, you may be starting off the next great astronomer on the way to a prize-winning discovery! If you are serious contemplating … Continue reading

Pursuing astronomy as an amateur

Astronomy has been a relevant field to scientists and people generally curious about what is out there beyond our tiny speck of the universe known as Earth. Civilizations like the Egyptians and the Chinese have been using crude instruments and creating basic stellar maps for millennia, and have been theorizing the relationship of planets and satellites, such as whether the sun goes around the earth or vice-versa even before Galileo put his indelible stamp on the issue. Astronomers, with an eye perpetually to the sky, study the physical processes and interrelatedness of things beyond Earth’s atmosphere. Generally, to be an astronomer of any notoriety, one must actively pursue the field by virtue of an advanced degree and years upon years of attention to a specific area of extraterrestrial space. Still, modern astronomy had to have its foundations in amateur attempts to understand the universe. Going back to the relationship between the sun and the earth, it was for a long time assumed and furthermore established as dogma that Earth was the center of our galaxy before astronomers came to realize that this could not be further from the truth. Even today, with advances in technology, so much more information is … Continue reading

Astrophysics and its categories

Most people may not have a practical use for astrophysics in their everyday lives. This scientific field will not be on the minds of many when they go to fill up their tanks as they go to the gas station, or as they go to the bagel shop in the morning to pick up breakfast for the office. In fact, it is somewhat of an esoteric topic, and you will likely only pursue advanced knowledge of the subject if you intend to be an astrophysicist. Nevertheless, it is important to at least have a general idea of what an astrophysicist does. There are a lot of terms that can get thrown together in the study of space and the stars, and wrongfully so; astrophysics and astrology are two completely different fields, in spite of the fact they share the common Greek prefix “astro”, which signifies a relation to the stars. Even you avoid this confusion, the study of astrophysics is one that, even if you don’t fully grasp, you can appreciate for the truly large scale of what it approaches. Astrophysics, a subset of astronomy, studies the physics of the universe, which is indeed quite a large undertaking. It is … Continue reading

The International Space Station: Benefits and costs

The mold for the space station was broken with the creation and use of the original Mir in the 80′s and 90′s. Previously, space stations had not seen continuous use to a great extent, but the idea that Space Station Mir saw at least one person living in it on end for almost a decade was an inspiration for other space complexes to follow. This enterprise, while an achievement of science, unfortunately did not wholly reflect the sense of global community the sciences in their purest form aim to promote, as Mir was distinctly a Soviet-/Russian-run construct. The International Space Station, meanwhile, is a credit to its name because its continued construction has only been possible through the cooperation of several nations. While economic realities may have greased the proverbial wheels of this agreement, the fact remains that the Space Station is a byproduct of funding from the American space program (NASA), as well as contributions from the governments of Russia, Japan, Canada and the European Space Agency. The International Space Station is quite possibly the most expensive item ever made, costing its international patrons billions of dollars. Certainly, it is the largest object, space station or otherwise, to be … Continue reading

The difficulties of space travel

Space exploration is a popular subject for science fiction writers. Often, the setting of the story will involve a distant date in the future that is hard for most to contradict as plausible, and capture the wildest fantasies of those who follow the story. Of most interest here, the workings in the plot will often be shaped by the space travel of man to likewise distant worlds which are also inventions of the writer’s yet equally impossible to disprove. While some predictions of future worlds have already failed to come to fruition with the passing of the deadline years predicted in their works, others have yet to be verified or refuted. At present, though, space exploration is a risky business, and most of the information we have collected from our own solar system is not the result of manned space travel but rather the data collection of unmanned probes. There are a number of challenges facing humankind’s transit through outer space today. Below are some of these difficulties: 1. Difficulties of repairs – Previous manned space exploration missions have had their share of problems with needed repairs and failed launches. At worst, spacecraft have failed to get off the ground … Continue reading

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