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(meteorobs) Re: [astro-l] Columbia Accident: Communicating to the public/children
I personally believe that Claudio ("CVA") has captured, en
toto,
the root cause and subsequent effect(s) of The Shuttle
Saga
(quoted, below)
In addition, for those who have not read, or briefly glanced
at,
I ask that you take the time to re-read it (copied
below). I think
it will be well worth your time, in terms of both the
engineering
comments and the values of humananity that are contained
within.
thanks
chuck ferriday
"...... In the end, due first to curtailing of the
Apollo Program (just when it was taking on increasing scientific significance),
followed by a long history of Congressional complacency towards space
exploration, budgetary allowances of the sort that might have facilitated a
broader range of engineering systems, including those that may have accommodated
a couple more safety options for human crews, were non-existent. The result is
an extremely narrow engineering corridor for errors. We are, in a sense, trying
to sail Columbus' maiden voyage in a well made row boat under a darkening
sky..........."
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Tuesday, February 04, 2003 9:30
AM
Subject: [astro-l] Columbia Accident:
Communicating to the public/children
Hi all
-
Though
post-Hayden demolition adventures, I rarely write to the Planetarium List, I
do read a good deal of it, and the item below, from clinth@tfn, was especially interesting to me. I
thought those of you with public communication responsibilities, and/or with
children, might benefit. I include my responses as well. I am also forwarding
this to a great many educators on my list for similar reasons. For brevity, I
have edited a tad.
At 12:58 PM 2/3/03, clinth@tfndot net
wrote:
There seems to be a good bit of
support from the public so far rather
than
the negativity we might
fear, but as things like the article about the
(approximately) 7" x 30"
gash in the tiles estimated by NASA engineers,
and
other items come
into public view, they will begin to wonder why this
happened. We need to
help them understand, if we can. I fully
support NASA,
but am having a
bit of trouble myself, but only because the NASA folks
aren't at the
point yet where they are able to give completely
straight
answers.
There
is the possibility that the investigation is at such an early stage that the
answers are, by the admission of the NASA representatives themselves,
unreliable, as the information collected to date is minimal compared to the
future mass of data that may serve to resolve the sequence of events currently
in our minds. The Western public is impatient as a culture for complex
reasons. Recall our pre-9/11 impulse to lay blame on terrorists for the demise
of TWA Flight 800.... But whilst the well studied phenomenon of demand for
instant gratification may serve the commercial sector well, it seems counter
productive to rational investigation of real phenomena, whether in the natural
sciences or during the investigation of an accident. It is this point that
could be conveyed to the public at large for their benefit.
We need to be prepared to explain
that if the left wing were known to be
damaged so badly, why couldn't
something be done. If it were even
assumed
to be damaged at all, why
didn't they check it out[?] [There] were no
robotic
arm cameras this
mission. An EVA to the underside couldn't be done.
Previous attempts to
photograph details of potential shuttle damage from
satellites were no
help. It isn't a trivial matter to, for example, [to]
take
the shuttle
to the space station, have [the ISS crew] take a look, then if
it
looks
bad, dock and let the astronauts stay there until they could
be
rescued.
Quick
insert: the two platforms - Shuttle and ISS - sustained orbital trajectories
that would have made it easier for a Winebago to drive from New York to
California on a teaspoon of gas... Rumor has it that space is a rather large
place... In addition, the shuttle had no docking mechanism this trip. Also,
they has insufficient capability to wait it out until the next shuttle might
have been launched to retrieve them. If the tiles were, indeed, damaged on
takeoff, the crew was doomed from that moment. All that inspections would have
accomplished would have been to prolong the period of anxiety, and therefore
suffering, for the crew.
To
the public, after
all, they do these sorts of things all the time in the
movies, and
someday hope to in reality, so why couldn't they do it
in
this
case?
We need to educate ourselves as much as possible
ahead of the public and
get the information to them that will help them
understand...
In
the end, due first to curtailing of the Apollo Program (just when it was
taking on increasing scientific significance), followed by a long history of
Congressional complacency towards space exploration, budgetary allowances of
the sort that might have facilitated a broader range of engineering systems,
including those that may have accommodated a couple more safety options for
human crews, were non-existent. The result is an extremely narrow engineering
corridor for errors. We are, in a sense, trying to sail Columbus' maiden
voyage in a well made row boat under a darkening
sky.
The
near future may give rise to a truly robust new sort of engineering approach
to our penetration into physically hostile environments, in space, proper, and
on other bodies, including returning to ours. We are a ways from that point.
However, such elegant and capable engineering can only have a chance at being
realized if the tax paying public (or massive collaborations by private
sources) is willing to communicate to Congress. This is a message that might
be conveyed to the public at a moment like this.
Though disappointed, I was not
surprised by the many questions raised at
first about why there is no
ejection mechanism that could have saved the
astronauts, or about the
plane that one witness in Texas saw "near" the
shuttle as it was breaking
up. People don't really understand the
simple
concepts of distance and
speed during re-entry... how are they
going to
deal with a headline
like "NASA Engineers Predicted Huge Tear in Left
Wing
Surface" that
are sure to come out
soon?
We
should be happy that we live in a place and time when the public, lacking in
understanding as many of them may, nevertheless express a broad willingness to
ask questions, regardless how simple we may believe them to be. A society in
which questions were avoided would be, to me, hell. I sincerely convey to my
audiences - as many of us do - that there, truly, is no such thing as a dumb
question.
[some portions snipped]
Three of my kids lived
through the Challenger disaster
and even the three year old had questions. All
of
them witnessed 9/11
and it took lots of talking about it and
considerable
time to heal. We
all know the average parent and school teacher isn't
going
to REALLY
know how to explain why we go into space if it is so
dangerous...
We
need to help the kids (and the adults)
understand.
No
one proposes force feeding the dark side of life to children, but there are
gentle and wise ways to convey to them that life, as it seems to have evolved,
and as we understand it, includes a termination point for each of us: amoeba,
squirrel or human. The natural evolution of emotions to inspire avoidance of
this inevitable outcome is also a natural state of affairs. None of us 'wants'
to die.
However,
one might also, by way of discussion regarding the Columbia accident, explain
that these ill-fated astronauts and mission specialists, if asked (and they
were...repeatedly), would have told you that they were anything but suicidal,
and knew every millimeter of risk they were taking. They all - also - saw the
Challenger accident...and then volunteered for the Astronaut Program *after*
that horrific and graphic event. They couldn't have been happier doing
what they were doing. Why? If you take a moment and listen to the video
interviews with the Columbia crew members, you come away with a sense that
they had in their minds the shared vision not of space travel, only, but of
that rather intangible but salient human impulse; one we all have: to
...evolve; to grow in our heads a greater collective understanding of the
significance; the rarity; the structure of existence. One's life is worth
that, surely...and they all walked that path on our behalves, quite willingly.
Not merely 'heroes' (a word so over used it's become a sort of journalistic
vulgarity), these were far greater...they were human explorers, a title
perhaps unsurpassed in historic significance even by great
warriors.
Claudio
'I often think the night is more
alive
and
more richly colored than the
day.'
-
Vincent Van
Gogh
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CV A
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