The Speaker on Boeing's Starliner Spacecraft Has Started Making Strange Noises (arstechnica.com) 103
An anonymous reader shared this report from Ars Technica:
On Saturday NASA astronaut Butch Wilmore noticed some strange noises emanating from a speaker inside the Starliner spacecraft.
"I've got a question about Starliner," Wilmore radioed down to Mission Control, at Johnson Space Center in Houston. "There's a strange noise coming through the speaker ... I don't know what's making it." [Ars Technica embeded a clip of the conversation including the rhythmic, sonar-like noise which was shared online by a Michigan-based meteorologist.] Wilmore said he was not sure if there was some oddity in the connection between the station and the spacecraft causing the noise, or something else. He asked the flight controllers in Houston to see if they could listen to the audio inside the spacecraft. A few minutes later, Mission Control radioed back that they were linked via "hardline" to listen to audio inside Starliner, which has now been docked to the International Space Station for nearly three months.
Wilmore, apparently floating in Starliner, then put his microphone up to the speaker inside Starliner. Shortly thereafter, there was an audible pinging that was quite distinctive. "Alright Butch, that one came through," Mission control radioed up to Wilmore. "It was kind of like a pulsing noise, almost like a sonar ping."
"I'll do it one more time, and I'll let y'all scratch your heads and see if you can figure out what's going on," Wilmore replied. The odd, sonar-like audio then repeated itself. "Alright, over to you. Call us if you figure it out."
"I've got a question about Starliner," Wilmore radioed down to Mission Control, at Johnson Space Center in Houston. "There's a strange noise coming through the speaker ... I don't know what's making it." [Ars Technica embeded a clip of the conversation including the rhythmic, sonar-like noise which was shared online by a Michigan-based meteorologist.] Wilmore said he was not sure if there was some oddity in the connection between the station and the spacecraft causing the noise, or something else. He asked the flight controllers in Houston to see if they could listen to the audio inside the spacecraft. A few minutes later, Mission Control radioed back that they were linked via "hardline" to listen to audio inside Starliner, which has now been docked to the International Space Station for nearly three months.
Wilmore, apparently floating in Starliner, then put his microphone up to the speaker inside Starliner. Shortly thereafter, there was an audible pinging that was quite distinctive. "Alright Butch, that one came through," Mission control radioed up to Wilmore. "It was kind of like a pulsing noise, almost like a sonar ping."
"I'll do it one more time, and I'll let y'all scratch your heads and see if you can figure out what's going on," Wilmore replied. The odd, sonar-like audio then repeated itself. "Alright, over to you. Call us if you figure it out."
Aliens (Score:5, Funny)
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Must be aliens knocking on the hatch.
*shhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!*.....You Don't say that is is Aliens!!!......but it's Aliens
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Nah, it's coming from the obelisk.
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Must be aliens knocking on the hatch.
An alien drummer?
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Worse, they want to tell us about HDgvodoed, the Lord and Savior. Better turn off the lights and keep quiet, maybe they'll go away.
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The thing ..... (Score:3)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
The Thing, also known as the Great Seal bug, was one of the first covert listening devices (or "bugs") to use passive techniques to transmit an audio signal. It was concealed inside a gift given by the Soviet Union to W. Averell Harriman, the United States Ambassador to the Soviet Union, on August 4, 1945. Because it was passive, needing electromagnetic energy from an outside source to become energized and active, it is considered a predecessor of radio-frequency identificat
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Not aliens (Score:2)
Kids these days!
this is what happens when folks stop learning morse code.
The transcription begins,
Hey skipper. [pause] Yes little buddy.
Sounds like the thing is falling apart... (Score:3)
Business as usual at Boeing these days.
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Re: Sounds like the thing is falling apart... (Score:5, Informative)
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It's not the number of landings that matters, but the quality of landings.
Starliner was supposedly sent to ISS without software to make it land without catastrophic damage among other flaws. Someone at Boeing seems to have agreed with you that just landing it is fine. Quality of said landing wasn't really relevant. It took off, and it would land. That's all that matters.
NASA appears to have disagreed with you and people at Boeing.
Re: Sounds like the thing is falling apart... (Score:2)
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Sure. Ask NASA. It was their claim, verbatim. I'm sure NASA is fake news.
Are you afraid of Boeing whistleblower fate, or are you fanboying for them for some other reason?
Re: Sounds like the thing is falling apart... (Score:2)
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You still haven't asked NASA I see. Or even bothered to search for their answer. Which tells me that you're not interested in said answer even a little bit.
Now why aren't you answering my question on the reason you're doing this silly thing?
Re: Sounds like the thing is falling apart... (Score:2)
Re: Sounds like the thing is falling apart... (Score:2)
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I'll just sit this one out, since not only have you managed to not google the damn thing, you didn't even look it the recent story on it that was linked here on slashdot and instead decided to invent another point and argue against that.
You're weird.
Re: Sounds like the thing is falling apart... (Score:2)
Starliner was supposedly sent to ISS without software to make it land without catastrophic damage among other flaws.
Can you walk us through what the actual fuck you are talking about? So Starliner was sent without software to land without catastrophic damage, but then landed via software without catastrophic damage?
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Ask NASA. This is what they provided publicly without giving specific details.
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Lots of older, more reliable Boeing aircraft out there. It's the newer ones that you need to worry about.
As well as poor manufacturing quality, their fly-by-wire system needs a lot of work. The newer the model, the more questionable software is in it.
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Lots of older, more reliable Boeing aircraft out there. It's the newer ones that you need to worry about.
As well as poor manufacturing quality, their fly-by-wire system needs a lot of work. The newer the model, the more questionable software is in it.
The FBW systems are fine, they've been using them since the 777 was introduced, so has the 737 NG (the old -700, -800 and -900) and both models have been rock solid. FYI, fly by wire just replaces old mechanical connections with electronic ones. Airbus introduced it a decade earlier with the A320 family and again, been utterly rock solid.
The problem Boeing had is that it thought it could change the way an aircraft flies by having a system between the pilot and the controls that would fudge the inputs to
Re: Sounds like the thing is falling apart... (Score:2)
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I can't, Boeing forgot to attach the grip.
Whale sounds? (Score:2)
We all know where that comes from...
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Boeing boing boing bonk (Score:3)
Re: Boeing boing boing bonk (Score:2)
There's still a Hitler channel
https://youtu.be/dprvtnAnkAU [youtu.be]
Maybe they're hearing the source broadcast in brain waves?
Uh Oh (Score:3, Insightful)
Holy shit, that is the Tardis Cloister Bell [youtube.com] sped up, maybe 4x.
I'd just brick up that hatch and eject the ship with a cutting torch ASAP, and send it into the sun.
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It's always annoyed me: Before the sound-effect became the Tardis danger signal in "Logopolis" (1981), it was the citadel beacon in "Death to the Daleks" (1974).
Coronal Mass Ejection Caused? (Score:1)
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I doubt that CMEs would create a repetitive chirp like that, with such a short period. The interaction of CMEs with the earth's magnetosphere tends to create far less periodic phenomena with much longer time-scales (minutes/hours/days). Even if the ISS were flying through some EM fields or plasma with fine structure, I doubt the effects would be so regular.
My guess is it's radioelectronic interference of some kind, from the ISS or Starliner itself.
"Who you're gonna call?" (Score:2)
Great start for a SciFy horror...or maybe a new GhostBusters one?
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Actually, it was "How are you gentlemen?"
Asimov (Score:4, Interesting)
The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not “Eureka!” (I found it!) but “That’s funny ...”
— Isaac Asimov
Not saying that's the case here, but...
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The most terrifying thing to hear in space is "Our ship is making funny noises."
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This is Engineering, not Science. "That's funny" is absolutely NOT desirable in Engineering even if it is VERY desirable in Science.
Please Fasten Seatbelts (Score:4, Funny)
Really that sounds like 'somebody's seatbelt isn't secured'.
I hope their crap software isn't preparing to fire thrusters without disconnecting.
linked via "hardline"? (Score:3)
Mission Control radioed back that they were linked via "hardline" to listen to audio inside Starliner, which has now been docked to the International Space Station for nearly three months.
From Mission Control (on the ground) to a spacecraft (in orbit)? To get a clear signal over that distance, I'm guessing it's one of those gold oxygen-free Monster cables? A really, Really, REALLY long one?
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Nah, the cable is pretty short. They just forgot that they weren't supposed to let on that they're filming on a sound stage.
Doesn't sound like sonar. (Score:4, Informative)
Re: Doesn't sound like sonar. (Score:3)
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Re: Doesn't sound like sonar. (Score:2)
Is not a chirp a note at a higher frequency?
Re: Doesn't sound like sonar. (Score:5, Funny)
It's been half a century. It probably works differently now. Especially in space instead of underwater. Come to think of it, there is no way sonar can work in space!
In Space, no one can hear you....Ping... :)
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Story elicited many jokes. Is this the best?
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Unless you're in Star Trek Discovery, then they totally have sonar in space.
Seriously, fuck NuTrek...
Actually, they DO have SONAR in space. (Score:2)
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Space RADAR. Because space. That's also why it sounds different than air RADAR.
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There is, but your speaker needs to be the size of a galaxy cluster, and the magnet in the middle of it needs to be about 3.4 billion times the mass of the Sun. https://www.vice.com/en/articl... [vice.com]
Sounds very mechanical (Score:2)
I've no idea what that was, but I can sure that it didn't sound a bit like sonar.
To me it sounds really mechanical, like a rough engine. I wonder if it's really the speaker making the noise or something about the leaks the ship was having causing some kind of mechanical oscillation internally that happens to be louder near the speaker.
If we hear a story about a minor explosion or rupture on the craft it would not be a big surprise.
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Well, it's definitely not sonar because sonar is sound and, well they're in space. </captainobvious>
But I got you. My guess is it's some kind of radioelectrical interference from Starliner or the ISS.
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Duh! Space Sonar might just work different than old military toys from 20th century's middle ages did.
It's Boeing (Score:5, Funny)
That's the 'Door Ajar' alarm.
Re:It's Boeing (Score:5, Funny)
Nureek retut hanungah (Score:2, Funny)
It's just the pipes.
They didn't even bother with hardened electronics? (Score:5, Insightful)
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To be fair no one expected it to be up there this long. Not only because it wasn't planned to be, but also because ... Boeing.
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To be fair no one expected it to be up there this long. Not only because it wasn't planned to be, but also because ... Boeing.
It wasn't supposed to be up there this long ON THIS FLIGHT. It was however designed to stay up there much longer on normal NON TEST flights. So if you are right it is just another way that Boeing f'd up the design.
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That's how Jimi Hendrex invented the distortion guitar.
what's that ping? (Score:3, Funny)
Low battery warning.
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Would someone please change the battery on the smoke alarm??
auxiliary docking rangefinder? (Score:1)
Clearly Starliner is powered by a forsaken child. (Score:2)
Plot twist: it's a sonar (Score:2)
In a spacecraft.
Given the recent Boeing screw ups, I'd not be surprised.
OMG! That's where Astro, the Launch cat hid. (Score:1)
And the Boeing Starliner Waste Management System (WMS) is nothing like his kitty litter.
Think I have seen this movie (Score:3)
It's a feature (Score:2)
It's the there-is-air signal: when you stop hearing it, the Boeing craft has blown a door plug and you're in hard vacuum.
In cases sch as this (Score:2)
I default to my usual statement said in a slightly animated sarcastic voice: That's nice.
Suit up! (Score:2)
Documentary from Hollywood. (Score:3)
That is a submarine crew banging on the hull. Hollywood has done a lot of documentaries about it.
valve testing (Score:2)
Still firing those valves over an over trying to unstick them.
At least the astronauts have a good story. "One time I drove a Ford Pinto to the space station and got stuck there for almost a year. Then I had to ride home in a borrowed AMC Gremlin."
Not sure (Score:2)
[PAUSE]
Wilmore: Hey Sunita, I figured out what that sound is.
Williams: What is it?
Wilmore: It's NASA's call hold music.
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Obligatory Monty Python reference (Score:2)
The machine that goes "ping":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
It's the smoke alarm. (Score:2)
They should have changed the battery before they left the ground, but didn't expect to be up there more than six months. Now they're stuck with that maddening BEEP once a minute every minute until the battery dies completely.
You call yourself nerds?! (Score:1)
That's clearly the Science Officer's console. Spock is probably in there communicating in whale speak.
All of the jokes (Score:2)
Resonance (Score:2)
Vogon Backup Alarm (Score:2)
Vogon Constructor Fleet overshot the Sol System and is backing up.
Boeing is clearly a Vogon subsidiary and used the same emergency radio frequency.
Morse code for⦠(Score:2)
I've just picked up a fault in the AE-35 unit. It's going to go 100 percent failure within 72 hours.
The driver's door is open (Score:2)
Sry to stop the speculation (Score:2)
The Microsoft licence on the software has expired? (Score:1)