SPLAT! Satellite failed to deploy parachute, impacts in desert - Page 2

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[ARCHIVED THREAD] - SPLAT! Satellite failed to deploy parachute, impacts in desert (Page 2 of 2)

Posted: 9/8/2004 11:46:33 AM EDT

[#1]

Quoted:
Tin Foil Hat time.
Since when do we land/splat/recover space probes at the Dugway proving grounds?

I dont know, but I live nearby, I'll saunter up to the gate and ask them next time I'm out there. Also, I'll let everyone know if I come down the the Solar Flu in the next few days

Posted: 9/8/2004 12:10:10 PM EDT

[#2]

Too bad there wasn't a chimp in there with a camcorder

Posted: 9/8/2004 12:16:19 PM EDT

[#3]

Hey, isn't this like the beginning of "The Andromeda Strain"?

The epiliptic woman scientist was ... NOT hot. Good character, though.

Posted: 9/8/2004 12:31:07 PM EDT

[#4]

Quoted:
Quoted:
Damn, that sucks. Somehow it must be George Bush's fault, right? Give the dems time, and it will be.

Woody

From DU:

gauguin57 (1000+ posts)
Wed Sep-08-04 02:10 PM
Response to Original message
7. I wanna know how Karl Rove pulled this off.

AWOL story should be all over the place. But all I'm hearing on the news is Genesis crash, Genesis crash, Genesis crash.

Maybe Rove figured raising the terror level to red would be too flashy a way to get the media off the AWOL story. So he got NASA to make the chutes fail.

I'm not kidding.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x2326014

See, I'm like Nostrodamus. Only I smell better right now.

Woody

Posted: 9/8/2004 12:38:18 PM EDT

[#5]

Quoted:
Too bad there wasn't a chimp in there with a camcorder

You bastard. You made me swallow a peanut M&M whole.

Posted: 9/8/2004 5:54:55 PM EDT

[#6]

They want solar wind particles? Hell, I've got some up on Ebay right now.

Posted: 9/8/2004 6:21:40 PM EDT

[#7]

Quoted:
Quoted:
Do you have any idea how many launches and retrievals are successful? I know my company builds many many rockets and satelites that go up all the time. I'll bet the success ratio is better than the medical industry, auto of computer.

NASA has been fucking up a lot of shit with their better,faster, cheaper attitude. So far they've lost two mars expeditions in a row, almost lost a third, lost the columbia w/ her crew, and lost the genesis spacecraft. The things they are screwing up are the more important ones, and they set us back YEARS.

You take risks, you risk embarassment. Babe Ruth had far more striekouts than home runs - maybe people in his day didn't always dwell on the negative?

This reminds me of the talk about the Hispital where Clinton had his surgery - supposedly it had the highest death rate in the state. This was, of course, because they were willing to operate on the hopeless cases that most hospitals wouldn't touch. This didn't stop small-minded people from making stupid comments, though.

Posted: 9/8/2004 6:25:00 PM EDT

[#8]

Ok now THIS makes more sense than the other thread. Just bad luck. Parchute snagging is actually the safest available way to bring small packages down, which is why we used it for decades to get back film canisters from spysats. We did this into the early 1980's. But every now and then one of their parachutes got packed wrong too.

They should have sent two satellites. The only way to negate this possibility.

Posted: 9/8/2004 6:33:33 PM EDT

[#9]

It somehow bothered me to see that little satellite falling to earth.

It look like it was fighting to fly in the video.

to bad

Posted: 9/8/2004 6:55:55 PM EDT

[#10]

I should feel guilty, but the only thing I could think of watching that video was Les Nesman from WKRP saying "Oh my God, they're hitting the ground like sacks of cement" (the "Thanksgiving turkey drop" episode)

Posted: 9/8/2004 7:07:15 PM EDT

[#11]

Quoted:
I should feel guilty, but the only thing I could think of watching that video was Les Nesman from WKRP saying "Oh my God, they're hitting the ground like sacks of cement" (the "Thanksgiving turkey drop" episode)

[Arthur Carlson] "As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly!" [/Arthur Carlson]

Posted: 9/8/2004 7:09:27 PM EDT

[#12]

Isn't this how the original "Night of the Living Dead" started out?

Posted: 9/8/2004 7:13:28 PM EDT

[#13]

Quoted:

NASA has been fucking up a lot of shit with their better,faster, cheaper attitude. So far they've lost two mars expeditions in a row, almost lost a third, lost the columbia w/ her crew, and lost the genesis spacecraft. The things they are screwing up are the more important ones, and they set us back YEARS.

Keep in mind, though, that some of these latest screwups have not been NASA's fault.

I'd put money on the fact that this latest satellite was built by Lockheed-Martin--the same guys who did inches/feet/yards instead of centimeter/kilometer on the Mars Oddessy, and who dropped this NOAA bird at the shop. Seems someone from another program needed the bolts holding the satellite to its cradle, and since they used the same kind they just walked in and "borrowed" them off this bird.

Posted: 9/8/2004 7:15:26 PM EDT

[#14]

^^^^^

Looks like their little catapault thingie almost works!

Posted: 9/8/2004 7:19:08 PM EDT

[#15]

Just did some research, and yes, Lockheed-Martin was the prime contractor on this mission.

Talk about the Wiley E. Coyote method of satellite construction and recovery!

Posted: 9/8/2004 7:23:22 PM EDT

[#16]

Quoted:
Quoted:

NASA has been fucking up a lot of shit with their better,faster, cheaper attitude. So far they've lost two mars expeditions in a row, almost lost a third, lost the columbia w/ her crew, and lost the genesis spacecraft. The things they are screwing up are the more important ones, and they set us back YEARS.

Keep in mind, though, that some of these latest screwups have not been NASA's fault.

I'd put money on the fact that this latest satellite was built by Lockheed-Martin--the same guys who did inches/feet/yards instead of centimeter/kilometer on the Mars Oddessy, and who dropped this NOAA bird at the shop. Seems someone from another program needed the bolts holding the satellite to its cradle, and since they used the same kind they just walked in and "borrowed" them off this bird.

images.spaceref.com/news/2003/09.06.03.noaa-n.med.jpg
images.spaceref.com/news/2003/9.6.2003_01.lrg.jpg

Its not lockeeds fault that JPL was retarded and did not relay the course corrections in the correct units , they lose points for not doing their homework.

Posted: 9/8/2004 7:25:25 PM EDT

[#17]

Quoted:
Quoted:
Do you have any idea how many launches and retrievals are successful? I know my company builds many many rockets and satelites that go up all the time. I'll bet the success ratio is better than the medical industry, auto of computer.

NASA has been fucking up a lot of shit with their better,faster, cheaper attitude. So far they've lost two mars expeditions in a row, almost lost a third, lost the columbia w/ her crew, and lost the genesis spacecraft. The things they are screwing up are the more important ones, and they set us back YEARS.

"Better, faster & cheaper" was Former Administrator Dan Goldin's mantra, and he'd use it all the time on clueless DC politicoes and it's a crock of shit.

Any Engineer worth his salt will tell you that given the options of "better / faster / cheaper" you can have any two. NEVER all three. Anyone who tells you otherwise is full of horseshit.

I'm sorry to see NASA go through tough times, because I believe that space science & exploration is crucial, but bureaucrats running the show and program managers chosen for anything but technical excellence are not gittin' it done.

Posted: 9/8/2004 7:34:52 PM EDT

[#18]

The report is that the batteries that power the explosive charges that release the drag chutes overheated ON LIFT-OFF.

There is a CNN article about this:
NASA: hot battery won't stop solar wind gatherer
An overheated battery on a NASA spacecraft will not jeopardize a mission to collect solar wind particles and return them to Earth, project scientists said.

I can't find a cache and it doesn't come up on a CDD news search.

Posted: 9/8/2004 7:40:20 PM EDT

[#19]

Quoted:
Quoted:
Quoted:
Do you have any idea how many launches and retrievals are successful? I know my company builds many many rockets and satelites that go up all the time. I'll bet the success ratio is better than the medical industry, auto of computer.

NASA has been fucking up a lot of shit with their better,faster, cheaper attitude. So far they've lost two mars expeditions in a row, almost lost a third, lost the columbia w/ her crew, and lost the genesis spacecraft. The things they are screwing up are the more important ones, and they set us back YEARS.

You take risks, you risk embarassment. Babe Ruth had far more striekouts than home runs - maybe people in his day didn't always dwell on the negative?

This reminds me of the talk about the Hispital where Clinton had his surgery - supposedly it had the highest death rate in the state. This was, of course, because they were willing to operate on the hopeless cases that most hospitals wouldn't touch. This didn't stop small-minded people from making stupid comments, though.

I think you read me wrong. I am very strongly in favor of space exploration, I just dont think NASA is getting enough funding. You can not have a philosophy of better, faster, and cheaper in this game and expect to win. If it was up to me NASA would get all the funding it required. A lack of resources is what is causing most of these problems.
I am being negative because I am pissed off about the whole thing. It really hurts me to see precious knowledge flushed down the toilet like this. They hope that by sending a large number of smaller cheaper missions that they will increase their probability of success, which is logical, but would be unnecessary if the monkeys in office just gave them the money they needed.