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Space Earth Science Technology

Lightning Strikes Delay Shuttle Launch 50

Posted by timothy from the hey-we've-all-got-problems dept.
Tisha_AH writes "The Space Shuttle has had its launch delayed for inspection after several lightning strikes to the launch tower and/or shuttle. Several different technologies have been applied by NASA to divert the strike energy to ground potentials with Air Terminals (lightning rods), surge protectors or the often-disputed use of static dissipator brushes. One technology that appears promising is to cause a lightning strike (to a safe location) through the use of short pulsed ultraviolet lasers. Maybe in the future, once the technology matures, we may find widespread use of UV lasers to protect space launch vehicles, antenna towers or buildings."
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Lightning Strikes Delay Shuttle Launch More

Lightning Strikes Delay Shuttle Launch

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  • None of the strikes hit the shuttle... (Score:4, Informative)

    by fraik ( 190932 ) on Saturday July 11, 2009 @02:35PM (#28662497)

    "None of the strikes hit the shuttle or its external tank and solid rocket boosters, but there were strikes to the lightning mast and water tower."

  • Also in BBC (Score:5, Informative)

    by physburn ( 1095481 ) on Saturday July 11, 2009 @02:46PM (#28662591) Homepage Journal
    The BBC has the story here [bbc.co.uk]

    --

    Nasa can't afford to many delays in there program, if there are to get the ISS finished before the Shuttle program shutdowns down in september next year. The launch is now rescheduled to Sunday.

    --

    Space Craft [feeddistiller.com] Feed @ Feed Distiller [feeddistiller.com]

  • Spare U.S. The AgonY of Space Shuttle Failure (Score:1, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward

    and just subcontract the work to theSoyuz engineers [energia.ru].

    What's next on the list of delays: slow pizza delivery,
    mice, North Korean botnets, or Bruno?

    Yours In Socialism,
    Kilgore Trout

  • Bad Summary (Score:2, Funny)

    by PNutts ( 199112 )

    From TFA: None of the strikes hit the shuttle or its external tank and solid rocket boosters, but there were strikes to the lightning mast and water tower.

    Sheesh... You'd think it was Microsoft article.

  • Like This (Score:5, Interesting)

    by timeOday ( 582209 ) on Saturday July 11, 2009 @03:09PM (#28662757)
    Not pertinent to the current delays, but this story reminded me of a cool picture [nasa.gov].

    I wonder if lasers could be used to divert lightning from commercial airliners in-flight? There was some speculation [nzherald.co.nz] it could have contributed to the recent Air France crash, though apparently it's not a leading theory.

    • The picture is electrifying! Thanks.

    • Re:Like This (Score:4, Informative)

      by cathector ( 972646 ) on Saturday July 11, 2009 @07:03PM (#28664393)

      the lasers work by ionizing the air between the cloud and the source of the laser, effectively creating a guide wire which the lightning then follows from the cloud to .. the source of the laser. which in the case of an airplane would pretty much have to be the airplane, so i'm not sure it's quite what you want.

      • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

        by nethenson ( 1093205 )
        At least you would control the impact point, and would be able to divert the lightning from the most sensitive areas like the engines or the electronics. And you could force it to hit at a more prepared area of the airplane.

  • but... (Score:1, Troll)

    by at_slashdot ( 674436 )

    can we mount UV lasers on sharks?

  • power (Score:2, Interesting)

    by heptapod ( 243146 )

    Maybe they'll use the short pulsed ultraviolet lasers to make sure lightning strikes the vicinity of vast capacitors to generate energy for a city.

    • that's an interesting idea.
      seems like it should be testable with good old feet-on-carpet static electricity and some small cap's.

  • strike (Score:5, Informative)

    by confused one ( 671304 ) on Saturday July 11, 2009 @03:31PM (#28662905)
    While it has been pointed out that none of the strikes hit the shuttle itself... 7 of them hit the catenary wires or tower at the launch site and 2 of those were large enough to exceed the safety limit, inducing a 110V surge in the shuttle power system. While there's no damage indicated yet, this 24 hour stand down is to give the engineers and technicians time to check over the shuttle and all of the launch hardware.
  • Could this be used to collect lightning?

  • Video of the incident (Score:3, Interesting)

    by sponga ( 739683 ) on Saturday July 11, 2009 @05:38PM (#28663881)

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYHY_BVj1Xo [youtube.com]

    I can't imagine the water tower being too complicated in electronics,open valve to get the water to the site to cool the concrete right?

    Other electronics on shuttle though must be checked.

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by confused one ( 671304 )
      There were 7 strikes that hit the water tower, launch tower and protective catenary wires. At least 2 of them exceeded safety limits; inducing unacceptable voltage spikes in electrical systems.
  • My group has a satellite going up on this launch. It got delayed from last month; now it's delayed again.
  • The knob that was stuck between the dashboard and windshield of Atlantis (discussed here two weeks ago [slashdot.org]) was succesfully removed [nasaspaceflight.com] using dry ice, a pressurized orbiter, and "hand pressure to manipulate it loose". The window subsequently passed inspection [nasaspaceflight.com]. Recall that window replacement could have caused a six month delay.

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