The Cosmic Mirror By Daniel Fischer Every page present in Europe & the U.S.!

Archive | Index Ahead | Awards The latest issue!

Also check out Space Today, Spacef. Now, SpaceRef! A German companion - only available here! Current mission news: MGS (latest pictures!) + Cassini + Stardust

Mars is already past its record-close approach to Earth (at 9:51 UTC on Aug. 27), but throughout September and October it should remain a fine telescopic sight, at even more convenient early evening hours: two HST pictures of Aug. 27 [SR], a groundbased Mars view from Mauna Kea [AAO], a French amateur pic with 60 cm aperture, Mars pictures by the Ikonos (!) satellite, some advanced Mars math, Science@NASA on Mars in September and coverage of Sep. 11: S&T. Sep. 3: Oregonian. Sep. 2: APOD. Aug. 31: Oregonian. Aug. 30: AFP. Aug. 29: SC, Guardian. Aug. 28: AFP, BBC, Guardian, New Sci., Tennessean, SC, NZ. Aug. 27: BBC 2, 1, WP, AstroBio, Guardian, Seattle PI, FreeLance (note the cartoon!), Tor. Star, Austr., SMH, Denver Post, USA Today, AFP 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, CNN, Dsc., Cordis, Wired, Rtr 3, 2, 1, Ast., S&T, SC, ST, APOD, RP (with a weird picture gallery), TAZ, Welt - and from the trash bin of "journalism": Bild. Aug. 26: Nat'l Geogr., SC (earlier), Dt. Welle, NY DN, RP, NZ. Digitized Schiaparelli manuscripts are also available! Red color from meteorites? New Sci. [EA], S&T, AFP, BdW. Mars erosion: S&T. Liquid water? U. Arkansas PR [SD], S&T, SC. Frozen but habitable? AstroBio. Mars caves? SC. Mars Express' energy trouble highlighted in Russia: AFP. MER landing sites: NMSU PR. MER eyes: SD. NASA's longterm planning: SC. Russia's Phobos plans: InterFax.

Update # 260 of Monday, September 15, 2003

CAIB verdict in / SIRTF's first image / VLT sights Halley - at 28m!

The Columbia verdict: good people, bad system, and »the foam did it« CAIB Report praises NASA, contractor workforce / But the safety culture is »broken« / The shuttle though is »not inherently unsafe« - and thus can return to flight after some fixes The Columbia accident is fully explained, no one was personally responsible but the whole NASA management structure was, and the shuttle can return to flight when a couple of specific steps are taken: That is the quintessence of the final report by the Columbia Accident Investigation Board as it was presented to the world on August 26. Board chair Hal Gehman and several other of the 13 investigators stressed repeatedly during a news conference in Washington that the disaster was »rooted in history« (a phrase borrowed straight from the Challenger investigation 17 years earlier), and that deficiencies in NASA's »culture« played as big a role in the accident as the infamous foam hit. »The foam did it,« is the CAIB's clear conclusion on the technical cause, without any »probably« or »possibly« attached: It was the San Antonio impact experiment on July 7 (when the most exact replication of the events on January 16 created a gaping hole in an orbiter wing) that clinched the case for the investigators and removed any lingering doubts. During this and previous experiments a lot was learned about the properties of the RCC material used in the leading edge of the orbiters' wings: It is actually tougher than expected - but then again not tough enough to withstand foam fragments impacting at high speed.

Other key insights had come earlier from Columbia's telemetry, the recovered OEX recorder, the tons of debris collected, video recordings and lab experiments. The collected fragments e.g. revealed telling traces of gas flows, temperatures experienced by the orbiter and revealing deposits of various metals: Soon a self-consistent picture had formed, with a »high degree of confidence«, and the investigators had been sure that the breach in Columbia's left wing had been pre-existing. The foam tests, however, put a crucial »exclamation mark« behind the hypothesis, showing that Columbia was doomed less than 2 minutes after launch. The deeper roots of the disaster had been investigated by the CAIB in great depth, in parallel with the slowly progressing technical analysis; some board members had spent all their time just digging through tons of paperwork. In numerous areas deficiencies in NASA's approach to manned spaceflight became evident, some already discussed in detail before, some not mentioned much yet: NASA had grown used to foam shedding from the external tank which has begun with the very first mission in 1991 and caused typically 30 »dings« per mission in the orbiter's skin. In particular the significance of foam shedding from the bipod ramp area in 7 cases, including Columbia's final flight, was ignored, even though just two missions before STS-107 a particularly severe incident took place. Schedule pressure may have been a factor in NASA managers missing all the signs of danger, though the importance of this aspect remained unclear - one CAIB member spoke of just »subtle influences« of tight timetables on safety-related decisions. Similarly, a direct role in the disaster of budget cuts and downsizings of the workforce that affected NASA as a whole can not be proven, but they may well have contributed: The shuttle program was often working too close to the margins. While the workforce both at NASA and the contractors tried its best (»those are good people«), they could't deliver the best results - because many of their tools and test facilities were relics from the early days of the shuttle, almost as »frozen in time.« This is a marked difference e.g. to the airline industry. Also, when an aircraft ages the maintenance procedures adapt: Not so with the shuttle, which at the same time was considered an operational vehicle when it was still - with just a handful of missions per vehicle - an experimental one. And one that slowly and subtly corroded away. Another apparent mistake was that NASA let the responsibility for the shuttle slip almost completely to the main contractor and didn't provide much government oversight afterwards. Adding to the trouble was constant uncertainty about how long the shuttle would fly at all: Key investments in its infrastructure and upgrades fell on the wayside. Overall the safety culture at NASA was »broken«, safety tended to lose out to operational requirements, and the safety programs were »silent,« with integration of the whole shuttle program absent and little flow of information. Fixing this deepest of problems will also take the longest time, and the CAIB is not insisting on completed structural reforms as a precondition for the shuttle's return to flight. The necessary steps to get the shuttle up again come in three groups: several immediate »return to flight« items that must be solved before even the next launch, further »continuing to fly« items that shall ensure that after the first couple of launches the old, dangerous habits do not return, and a third group of items that were discovered during the long investigation, played no role in the Feb. 1 accident but could endanger the shuttle in the future and must be dealt with. Overall the CAIB thinks that »the space shuttle is not inherently unsafe« and can be permitted to launch again as soon as the (continuing) problem of falling foam can be disconnected from the danger of losing an orbiter an crew. NASA must immediately find ways to reduce the amount of debris falling off the external tank, toughen the orbiters against any impacts that happen nonetheless, provide systems for in-orbit inspection of the whole orbiter surface, to repair any dangerous breaches found that way, and to generally enhance the survivability of the crew. The 248-page report, Gehman says, goes farther than most accident investigations that just concentrate on technical aspects: The CAIB feels that organizational matters within NASA are just as important as the foam incident itself. And while it was »impressed by the work force« (of which the U.S. should be »very very proud«), there »some things they can do better,« and the report will tell NASA how to do that. And Gehman also hopes that the report will be the basis for a »very vigorous« public policy debate on America's space program as a whole that should ask: What is our vision, what roles should man and robots play - and do we want to pay for it? (CAIB PC on Aug. 26 via BBC World)

The Report (10 MB PDF) [OS], its Executive Summary, a synopsis, long and short excerpts, Gehman's PC remarks, CAIB, NASA, and OSU Press Releases, a transcript of an O'Keefe PC, Senate testimony by O'Keefe and Gehman, a special message, remarks by Dordain, the latest Implementation Plan for Return to Flight and Beyond, a JSC Release on a new Progress at the ISS, Ed Lu on the Earth from space at night and Science@NASA on music in space. Coverage of Sep. 14: ST. Sep. 12: Science, UPI, ST, SC. Sep. 11: AD, WP, FT 3, 2, 1, SC 2, 1, ST. Sep. 10: FT 2, 1, SC. Sep. 9: AD, New Sci., FT, Dsc, ST, Welt. Sep. 8: FT 2, 1, ABC, BBC, AFP 2, 1, SC, ST, NZ. Sep. 5: FT, WP, ST 2, 1. Sep. 4: SN, WP, FT, AFP, SC 2, 1, ST. Sep. 3: FT 2, 1, SC, AFP. Sep. 2: Dsc, SC. Sep. 1: NZ. Aug. 31: BBC, FT, AFP, ST. Aug. 30: SD, FT, AP. Aug. 29: WP, Dsc, FT 2, 1, AFP, AP, BBC, ST 2, 1. Aug. 28: FT 2, 1, New Sci., SN, WP 2, 1, SC 2, 1, AP, CNN, SR, ST 2, 1, NZ. Aug. 27: WP 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, FT 2, 1, SN, Ast., New Sci., BBC 2, 1, CSM 2, 1, AFP, ST 2, 1. Aug. 26: SR, FT 30, 29, 28, 27, 26, 25, 24, 23, 22, 21, 20, 19, 18, 17, 16, 15, 14, 13, 12, 11, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, SN 4, 3, 2, 1, AFP 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, Rtr, CNN 3, 2, 1, BBC 4, 3, 2, 1, New Sci., Dsc., ABC, SC 4, 3, 2, 1, ST, RP, NZ. Grunsfeld named NASA chief scientist - the veteran astronaut and astrophysicist will become the agency's chief scientist: NASA Release, AFP, ST. China's first manned launch draws nearer - perhaps only one yuhangyuan will fly after all: SD (earlier). SpaceShipOne's 2nd drop test: ST. Engine candidate tested: SC. 25 years ago, the first German in space, a citizen of the GDR: NZ. Pluto mission makes comeback in Senate NASA budget Almost as expected, the U.S. Senate is planning to fully fund the New Horizons Pluto mission, in contrast to Congress - now a compromise must be found: Senate Press Release [SR], SC, AD, Space Today, AFP. Earlier: Plan. Soc. Alert. Galileo's mission to end on Sep. 21 with a controlled crash into Jupiter, in order to prevent future crashes into Europa: UA and NASA Press Releases, Popular Science, New Yorker, BBC, RP, NZ. SMART-1 launch not before late September - a new date will be announced soon: Rtr. Dawn doing fine, while the camera is now managed by a different German institute: Status.

Early SIRTF image released The telescope (see last Update) isn't even fully focused yet, but NASA has already presented a promising picture: a NASA Release [SSC], earlier Status Report and NASA and Ball Releases plus coverage of Sep. 5: S&T, NZ. Sep. 4: Ast., FT, AFP, Space Today. Aug. 26: Indep., 9News, FT, AW&ST. NASA awards Chandra X-Ray Observatory follow-on contract - the CfA will handle the X-ray telescope until at least 2010: NASA Release. Chandra 4 years at work: Press Release. MOST opens its eye - Canada's first space telescope begins observing the cosmos: CSA Release, Ast. NASA approves James Webb Space Telescope mirror design NASA has signed off on the mirror design for the JWST that will use a primary mirror made of 18 hexagonal segments of beryllium: NASA Release, ST. Weather satellite damaged in factory mishap - the spacecraft slipped off a cart and fell to the floor: details & pictures, NASA Release, SC, ST. Landsat 7 glitch likely permanent - a problem with a key component of the remote sensing satellite appears to be beyond repair, making use of data collected by the spacecraft difficult at best: ST. Another asteroid mini-scare came and went within a day - already the risk posed by 2003 QQ47 is much reduced thanks to new astrometry: the remaining impact possibilities (page will be removed if all are eliminated), the NEO Info Ctr. Note that started it all, a NEO Program Office PR removes the "threat", another NEO Info Ctr Release, lots of commentary in the CC Net of Sep. 3 and 2 and coverage by SpaceRev, TIME, UT, CNN, SC (earlier), Guardian, AFP, BBC (earlier), ST (earlier). Expert panel calls for expensive hunt for smaller objects less than 1 km in diameter - it would cost at least $236m: Report summary [SR], SC. NEAs are a bit smaller than thought because their albedos tend to be a bit higher - this reduces the impact risk as well: MIT Press Release. Sunlight can change the spin properties of asteroids quite dramatically - the effect is tiny but it acts for millions of years: SwRI Press Release, SC. Keck AO Images of Asteroid (511) Davida don't show too much - but then again Davida's angular diameter was less than one-ten-thousandth of a degree: Keck Release [SR]. A successful asteroid occultation campaign in Europe "maps" (420) Bertholda: EurAster ("chords" delivers the outline of the asteroid), Kn�fel. Was Venus habitable for a long time? The hellish climate of Venus may have arisen far more recently than previously supposed, suggests new research - pleasant Earth-like conditions probably persisted for two billion years after the planet's birth: New Sci., BdW. Nice HST views of Saturn released, though 6 months late: STScI Release, Ast., BBC, SC. New moons for Neptune and Uranus The Uranian moon was discovered before but hadn't made it into official lists: Ast. Neptune's moon Nereid probably captured, as is big Triton: S&T. Be careful with secondary craters as they can change the cratering record - and age estimates - in unexpected ways: Ast. Understanding the surface of Europa: U. CO PR, Ast., NZ. VLT sights Halley's comet 4.2 billion km from the Sun at 28.2 mag with a total exposure time of 9 hours - a new distance & faintness record: ESO Press Release, Ast., BdW. Only a few small Kuiperoids have been found during a survey with the HST: STScI Release, Plan. Soc., Ast. New Sci.A, BBC, UPI, BdW. Hubble assists Rosetta comet mission - the space telescope has made precise measurements of the size, shape and rotational period of the new target comet of the Rosetta mission, 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko: ESA Science News, STScI Release, Ast. Comets are not as pristine as thought A lot of processes have affected comets both in the Oort cloud and in the Kuiper belt since the birth of the solar system: SwRI Press Release, SC. Sorting comets by orbit in a new way: RAS Press Release. Nitrogen isotope anomaly seen again in 2001 WM1 - it had been detected only in Hale-Bopp so far: ESO Press Release.

"Killer electrons" from the solar wind "Killer" electrons capable of wreaking havoc on orbiting spacecraft may "surf" magnetic waves driven by the solar wind, according to a team of space scientists: GSFC Press Release. How a solar explosion becomes an antimatter factory, has been observed in detail by HESSI: GSFC Release. Solar neutrino problems solved even better, thanks to salt added to the SNO detector: PPARC Press Release. Neutrino detector MINOS readied: FNAL and PPARC Press Releases, Ast. ANTARES progress: Erlangen PM. Infrared halo frames a newborn star Observations with the VLT of a star-forming cloud have revealed, for the first time, a ring of infrared light around a nascent star - the images also show the presence of jets that emanate from the young object and collide with the surrounding cloud: ESO Press Release. Radio scan spots record star flash - the brightest flash of radiation ever recorded from a young star has been spied accidentally by a new radio telescope: NSU. A new type of stardust - interplanetary dust particles contain rare grains that formed in stars older than the Sun: PSRD. Flares on magnetars are 'Solar Flares on Steroids' Solar flares that scorch Earth's atmosphere are commonplace, but a few flares each year come from stars thousands of light years away: Science@NASA. Predicting stellar flares: PSU PR, Ast. X-ray flashers and GRBs are closely related, says a new model, while satellite observations place XRFs in very blue (=starforming) galaxies: U. Chicago and Chandra Press Releases; SF Gate. "Dark GRBs" could be an illusion as the quick HETE satellite catches most bursts fast enough that afterglows can be spotted: GSFC Release. Pulsar distance determined by parallax with the VLBA radio interferometer - and the result fits the distance of a supernova remnant in the same area in the sky (while an older indirect method gave a wrong answer): NRAO Press Release. Pulsar speeds through the ISM with high Mach number, leaving a V-shaped trail: ESA, NASA Releases [SN]. LMC halo points to birth similar to Milky Way's By measuring the movement of 43 RR Lyrae stars in the inner regions of the LMC, the team determined that a moving hot, metal-poor, old halo also exists in the LMC, suggesting that the Milky Way and smaller, more irregular galaxies like the LMC have similar early formation histories: Berkeley Press Release. Dwarf galaxy spotted during disruption: SWIN Press Release, Ast. Hot plasma near Sgr A* at the center of the Milky Way has been detected with Keck: Keck PR [SR], details, Ast. Central galaxy of cluster makes waves in the intergalactic medium - can you call that "sound"? Chandra and NASA Press Releases, Science@NASA and coverage by S&T, Ast., NSU, ScAm, WP, CSM, AFP, Denver P., SC, Rtr, BdW, RP. Deep X-ray scan reveals black-hole baby boom - a census shows that gas-gobbling in galaxies is increasingly common: NSU. Balloon record attempt slips to 2004 as an early leak foils the ride up to 40 km: BBC (earlier, still earlier), BdW, NZ. An HST image of galaxy NGC 3370 where once a supernova was observed: Heritage Release, Ast., BBC. And of crowded globular cluster NGC 6397: HST Release. How the Parkes radio telescop will augment the DSN in a few months time: JPL Feature [SD]. Big radio eye in Mexico: WP. Weather statistics for the eclipses of 2005 and 2006 (a hybrid and a total one) have been prepared by Anderson. Utah man sentenced to nearly six years for advertising stolen moon rocks on the Internet and skipping trial: AP. Ikonos views of the VLS disaster site in Alcantara, Brazil: Space Imaging Release (old view) [SR], SN, SD. The state of Brazil's space program: InfoBrazil, Rtr, SC, ST, Welt. Even strongly tilted planets could remain habitable, model calculations suggest: PSU PR, Ast. More simulations: NSU, NZ, PIK PR. Planet hunter GENIE progresses: ESA Science News. Spectral fingerprints of Brown Dwarfs: UCLA PR. Europe free from clouds as seen by MSG-1 on Aug. 10: ESA Release. New tool for weather forecasters: ESA Release. U.S. gravitational wave observatory to use European technology to become even better: PPARC Press Release. Space Elevators a real concept? Guardian, SpaceRev, Welt. Goldin accepts BU presidency - he will take office on November 1: BU Bridge. An interview with Brian Marsden from the Minor Planet Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts: New Scientist. And one with an Antarctic meteorite hunter: ibid.

Have you read the the previous issue?!
All other historical issues can be found in the Archive.

---

The U.S. site of this Cosmic Mirror has been visited times
since it was issued (the German site has no counter).

Compiled and written by Daniel Fischer
(send me a mail to [email protected]!), Skyweek