Rupert Goodwins

Mixed Signals

Any sufficiently advanced information is indistinguishable from noise

Friday 21 November 2008, 11:43 AM

Weekend reading for spaceheads

Thanks to reader Kevin Waite for a link to a fascinating space blog. He says "I think you'd find Wayne Hale's blog interesting (http://blogs.nasa.gov/cm/blog/waynehalesblog). He is ex-Shuttle Flight Director and now somewhere higher up in NASA. A damned good read.".

And it is. I'm being very, very good and not peeking (much) until end of play today, but I allowed myself one shot - and it makes fascinating and chilling reading.

One of the rules of spaceflight is that you mustn't kill large numbers of civilians by crashing your rocket into their town. Normally, this is taken care of by making sure you can steer away from trouble before abandoning ship - and normally, you can. Or you blow stuff up - the solid rocket boosters on the shuttle, for example, are under the control of the range officer and can be destroyed remotely.

But there is a 'black zone' during the shuttle's ascent where these options are not available. What happens then? Wayne Hale says it better than I can... and no, space flight isn't all jolly jinks in zero gee.

Nice one Rupert, another great link. I know this material won't be confined to weekend reading though!

Posted by roger andre on Nov 21, 2008 5:01 PM

Good one Rupert.

I didn't wait but I already was into the weekend by the time I got to read your posting. I am going to have to spread them out a little simply because I don't want it to end so soon.

I wish the PR people at NASA would play this blog up a little since its good to know that there are directors and managers at NASA with science, engineering, imagination and the spirit of exploration we don't see any where else in the US government.

Its also the only US federal agency that's NOT involved in making life miserable or limited for any of its citizens!

Posted by Xwindowsjunkie on Nov 22, 2008 11:30 PM