Saturday, March 21, 2020
The Space Shuttle Disaster
On January 28, 1986, the Space Shuttle Challenger was supposed to be launched as part of a test to fly into space with passengers aboard. Among these passengers were five NASA astronauts, a schoolteacher, and a specialist. This was the tenth flight for the Challenger and was supposed to be the first time a teacher was in space. Thus, the launch was broadcasted on television live, and around 20 percent of Americans watched the launch. Unfortunately, 73 seconds after its launch, the vehicle blew up and killed all crew members.
After this devastating incident, President Ronald Reagan created the Rogers Commission to investigate the cause of the disaster. Additionally, the shuttle program stopped for two and a half years. NASA was under heavy criticism, as not only were there similar failed launches (without passengers aboard), but the agency also did not release any information about the incident in the aftermath of the situation. The Roger Commission, meanwhile, found out after a few months that the accident was a technical problem where one of the parts failed, which then allowed hot gases to make contact with a tank that caused a mechanical failure. The Committee concluded that this was a problem of faulty design, since the part that failed had a higher chance of failure at certain temperature changes. NASA even knew this, but rather than making adjustments to the part, they accepted the risk. Ultimately, it was decided that the overarching cause was poor decision-making and communication.
This tragedy did change the outlook on NASA and space. Before this incident, space flight was exciting and many were eager to participate. This incident showed the dangers of space flight, and as mentioned earlier, it also caused NASA to reconsider their approach, which is why they spent over two years putting the shuttle program on halt. Every January, NASA holds a remembrance day to honor those who were aboard the vehicle.
Video of incident: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfnvFnzs91s
Sources:
https://www.space.com/18084-space-shuttle-challenger.html
https://www.cnn.com/2016/01/28/tech/challenger-disaster-space-shuttle-anniversary/index.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle_Challenger_disaster
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This incident reminded me of a recent youtube video that I watched amidst my days of self-isolation. The video was made by Vox, and it sought to explore the various reasons, both historical and present, of why America has yet to adopt the metric system. In the list of examples that were listed that were meant to underscore the disasters caused by a need for measurement conversions between US and the rest of the world, one was the sudden disappearance of The Mars Climate Orbiter. Launched on December 11, 1998, this $125 million space probe had the mission of exploring the Martian climate, atmosphere, and surface. However, upon entering the Martian atmosphere, the Orbiter soon burned into pieces. It turns out that while American's had measured the acceleration upon entry in lb/s^2, the reality of the numbers were showing in N/s^2. Just like you mentioned in your blog, this one fatal error is nonetheless a result of "poor decision making and communication."
ReplyDeleteSource:
https://www.simscale.com/blog/2017/12/nasa-mars-climate-orbiter-metric/
Vox Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TV6JFxMEcI