Space News Roundup

ke4roh writes "NASA reports that they're readying Atlantis for a launch "no earlier than October 2". STS-112, space station assembly flight 9A (the 15th) will add to the truss on the station. To get the station from the vehicle assembly building to the launch pad, they transport it in launch position - on one of the 37-year-old crawlers that travels at just 1 mile per hour. Each 6 million pound vehicle transports a big rectangle - the Mobile Launch Platform - to the launch pad. The crawler is 40 by 37 meters, has two steering wheels and two mufflers the size of a car. The crawlers have received minimal service to date, and an inspector noticed a cracked bearing shortly before a crawler took Atlantis out for the launch. A few folks are enjoying the opportunity to work on the crawlers before they make their journey. Will N-Sync's 23-year-old singer Lance Bass be space tourist number three - and the youngest person to ever fly in space? Corporate sponsors get to decide. Telescopes show Contour, short for "Comet Nucleus Tour", in three pieces. Unfortunately, it's only supposed to be one. The craft was to visit three comets to investigate their contents. They're murmuring about a replacement which would cost about $15M less (than the $154M price tag) thanks to much of the engineering being done already. The AP has more."

Atlantis huh?

[nemui-chan]

This is great.. Only $154 million, so if I save my lunch money until I'm 1,232 years old then I can buy my own. I wonder how the space elevator ideas will interact with the space stations, if at all...

Re:Atlantis huh?

[taphu]

Wow, you have ~$345 to save on lunch money every day? Can I be your friend?

Indirect Slashdotting

[n-baxley]

Trying to find more info on the crawlers, I popped over to Google and clicked on the first option ( http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/facilities/crawler.htm l) and sure enough, it was not responding.

Re:Indirect Slashdotting

[geoswan]

I tried it too. Then I tried clicking on the cached version. It took a couple of minutes before my browser gave up on fetching some gifs. Google said that page was cached in 1993. I did however click on this link [spaceflightnow.com] to info on the crawler's cracked bearings, from August 12th.

Re:Indirect Slashdotting

[jo_ham]

As a random piece of information about the Marion 8 crawlers, they have the longest windscreen wipers in the world (47 inches). This is from the Guinness Book of Records, alas I can't link to a book.

Lance Bass might be good for NASA.

[GOD_ALMIGHTY]

As much as I dislike N'Sync or the majority of teen pop culture, this could be really good for NASA. Think about it, he's getting corporate sponsers, this will garauntee lots of promotions for his trip. He'll be on MTV and various ABC^H^H^HDisney shows talking about this to teeny boppers all over the country. He could get kids at least thinking about space, even if it is superficial. The buzz should help NASA with PR involving the voting public to some extent.

Of course I'll be simmering with jealousy and choking on the cheapening of the Space Industry to accomodate this kid, but if it helps NASA, I can deal with it.

Re:Lance Bass might be good for NASA.

[program21]

We put men on the moon, and then stoppped caring. I doubt this is going to be much different, since anyone who does care that he's going is most likely too stupid to even comprehend what space is.

Re:Who cares

[Tablizer]

I think they should spend a little less money. I mean if that n'sync guy is on it, then i don't care if it explodes.

I do. If it bursts, then they will be playing N'sync tribute music all week all over the media. Thus, wish him safety.

Re:Who cares

[Tablizer]

(* One week is better than however long they'll last in music.*)

Since when do cheesy pop groups last a long time?

Re:The Cylinder

[caffeinated_bunsen]

If you read the end of the article, it explains that the top of the crawler is supported on a bunch of hydraulic cylinders which keep the platform level while the thing is moving.

CONTOUR

[Conare]

They're murmuring about a replacement which would cost about $15M less (than the $154M price tag) thanks to much of the engineering being done already.

Um, since it broke into three parts following a routine firing of the engines, shouldn't we double check that engineering?

The best thing for NASA

[Scaebor]

I think that taking up Lance Bass may result in just what NASA needs to gain public support: a theme song! Suggestions anyone?

Who issued it a Fork command?

[Tablizer]

Telescopes show Contour, short for "Comet Nucleus Tour", in three pieces. Unfortunately, it's only supposed to be one. The craft was to visit three comets to investigate their contents.

Damned Artificial Intelligence! Rumor has it they told it to "visit 3 comets", and appearently it tried to solve the problem by splitting into 3 peices instead of visiting them sequentially. Well, it has parallelism down pat. Now it just needs to understand everything else.

Instead of "divide and conquer", now it is "divide and Contour" :-)