Did Bat Hitch a Ride To Space On Discovery? 422
suraj.sun writes "A bat was seen clinging to the external fuel tank of the Space Shuttle Discovery before its launch on Sunday, apparently clung for dear life to the side of the tank as the spaceship lifted off.
The shuttle accelerates to an orbital velocity of 17,500 milers per hour, which is 25 times faster than the speed of sound, in just over eight minutes. That's zero to 100 mph in 10 seconds.
Did it make it into space? No one knows yet. But photos of Discovery as it cleared the launch tower showed a tiny speck on the side of the tank. When those photos were blown up, it became apparent that the speck was a bat."
Re:119V-0080 (Score:5, Informative)
Re:External Tank (Score:4, Informative)
The external tank doesn't make it into space.
Yes it does. It doesn't make it into orbit, however.
it's now a dead bat (Score:3, Informative)
bats can't survive in space.
bats can't survive in the upper atmosphere.
bats aren't falcons.
Re:119V-0080 (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Seriously (Score:5, Informative)
The bat was on the far side of the external tank from the orbiter, about a third of the way up from the bottom. There wasn't really any way that it could strike the orbiter during launch, or that any foam that it might pull off would fall and strike the orbiter. The weight of the bat compared to the weight of the shuttle loaded with fuel is negligible, you'd need a pretty big envelope for your back-of-the-envelope calculations to have enough decimal places to show any effect from it. It was not an unsafe call to essentially ignore the bat. It didn't pose any risk.
As for the idea of contaminating something like Mars and having it end up overrun with earth bacteria, I guess it's impossible to prove that it couldn't happen, but I don't it's very likely. Mars is more like the earth than anywhere else in the solar system, but it's still very different. You might be able to find a few organisms here that could potentially survive on Mars, but it's doubtful that any would thrive, particularly to the point of overrunning the planet.
Re:External Tank (Score:5, Informative)
ETs in SPAAAAACE! (Score:2, Informative)
The solid rocket boosters separate 125 seconds into the flight at about 150,000 feet (46 km). About seven minutes later when the external tank (ET) separates 30 seconds after MECO, it's at about 120 km, so it's already in space (going with 100 km as the boundary, which is greater than your 50 miles). Additionally, although it's on a suborbital trajectory, it is not yet at the apogee of that trajectory.
I do not have a number for its apogee, but since the OMS-1 burn is generally not required anymore, you can assume to a first approximation that the ET's apogee is close to that of the Shuttle. Without it's own version of the Shuttle's OMS-2 burn to circularize the ET's orbit, however, the ET reenters the atmosphere after less than a complete orbit.
Regardless, if the ill-fated bat with the apparently broken wing (or its earthly, perhaps spacely, remains) managed to stay attached through max Q, it could have been the first animal (body) to make it up to space.
Re:it's now a dead bat (Score:1, Informative)
Re:119V-0080 (Score:5, Informative)
Re:119V-0080 (Score:5, Informative)
And they're not accelerating upwards (I hope)
some of those crazy cars go at 9.8ft/s^2 (+ or - a little for air resistance)
I think you mean 9.8ms^-2 ;-).
Metric: get it right, first time.
Re:119V-0080 (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Name for the bat (Re:119V-0080) (Score:4, Informative)
The scale of "very close" in air at sea level is MUCH smaller than you think it is. Stick your hand out your window going 65 and see if you can feel a spot where the wind isn't moving close to the window.
Re:119V-0080 (Score:3, Informative)
http://www.pvponline.com/2008/06/30/interlude-the-adventures-of-lolbat/ [pvponline.com] was only the first appearance of the LOLBat.
Here's his second appearance:
http://www.pvponline.com/2008/08/25/interlude-the-lolbat-returns/ [pvponline.com]
http://www.pvponline.com/2008/08/26/dark-forces-gather/ [pvponline.com]
http://www.pvponline.com/2008/08/27/the-lolbat-strikes/ [pvponline.com]
http://www.pvponline.com/2008/08/28/epix-battle/ [pvponline.com]
http://www.pvponline.com/2008/08/29/epic-win/ [pvponline.com]
And, of course, his secret origin:
http://www.pvponline.com/2009/03/11/secret-origin-of-the-lolbat/ [pvponline.com]
ORLY!
Re:Bats are _not_ rodents, dangit! (Score:3, Informative)
What's interesting is bats aren't even close to rodents, taxonomically speaking.
Humans and other primates are, along with rodents, rabbits and treeshrews in the superorder "Euarchontoglires", below the infraclass "Eutheria" of "Mammalia".
Bats are in the infraclass "Laurasiatheria" under "Eutheria", along with hedgehogs, various ground shrews and moles, bears, dogs, cats, horses, weasels, skunks and so on. Most marine mammals are in the same infraclass as bats: otters, seals, walruses, whales etc. Curiously, although the various moles and shrews resemble bats superficially, they are not the closest living relatives of bats. Bats are more closely related to carnivores like dogs and cats, or even ungulates like rhinos, tapirs and horses.
Re:Name for the bat (Re:119V-0080) (Score:5, Informative)
Boundary layer (at least at subsonic speeds) where laminar flow slows is barely a tenth of an inch thick. Brian would have been a fair bit thicker than that, so would have certainly been exposed to significant aerodynamic forces as the Shuttle accelerated.
Re:119V-0080 (Score:4, Informative)
I would have gone with Wall-E.
And he's probably chasing a female bat named Eve who got into the Shuttle...