For starters, it was taken by a robot on another planet.
Also, this robot
-was launched over six years ago, traveled over 34 million miles through space before landing on Mars.
-has spent the last five years driving around taking pictures until...
... it took this picture.
In part because of a gust of wind.
What they learned from that picture picture is cooler yet.
...85 seconds after launch, a piece of insulation on the tip of the [space] shuttle's right-side solid-fuel booster broke away and struck [its] right side. The impact was not noted on NASA television at the time and after landing, NASA engineers said that while the shuttle had suffered more tile damage than usual, "it isn't something that's of a major concern."
But as it turned out, the damage was, in fact, extensive. More than 700 heat shield tiles were damaged.
Space Shuttle Columbia, 2003?
No.
Space Shuttle Atlantis, 1988.
Here's Atlantis' commander's take on it at the time (emphasis mine):
"I will never forget, we hung the (robot) arm over the right wing, we panned it to the (damage) location and took a look and I said to myself, 'we are going to die,'" recalled legendary shuttle commander Robert "Hoot" Gibson. "There was so much damage. I looked at that stuff and I said, 'oh, holy smokes, this looks horrible, this looks awful.'"
The 1988 mission was a classified DoD flight - so this never made the papers.
That, I get.
What I don't get is how this information did not inform the morons who sent Columbia's crew to their deaths five thirteen years later.
The video quality is a few steps short of Hollywood - and is not hilarious - but is a good illustration of how large organizations reflexively resist change.
The differences are legion- chief among them:
-I do not design spacecraft
-My ideas aren't based on hard science
-People do not die horrible deaths if my advice is not followed
Which is not to say I feel any less nullified when I'm told that a suggestion is out of scope but may be addressed in a (notional) future project.
I have my doubts that the utopian vision of Google's decision making process is accurate. After, all - resources are finite. Somebody has to say no, and employees who are told no will not be happy.
I suspect a big part of this issue is how a person is told no. Some think you need to be nice. Patronize the innovator, pat them on the head and they will leave happy. Wrong - they will know they are being patronized.
I think a better approach is to show the innovator the reason for no. The problem with the managers depicted in this movie (and let's face it - many real managers) is that they don't know the reason for saying 'no'.
So they make one up.
It's not in our plan. We have no requirements.
These are not answers - these are just a person who cannot be bothered to give you an intelligent answer.
Which is not to say every self-styled innovator deserves full-on attention from the higher ups.
Som ideas truly suck - cost too much, create more problems, or just don't work. I'm guessing the brilliant-to-sucky idea ratio doesn't favor good innovation.
But picture the manager who takes the time to get the good answer, or steer the innovator to people who will provide that answer.
People who will take a collegial attitude towards the suggestion. Hey, we tried that two years ago. Here's what we found. Are there things we missed?
The mercurial 'no-and-here's why' explanation that isn't a smackdown.
Over the course of my fractured career - I've been that person who felt a sudden burst of insight. Most times I've been wrong. I find that a wider perspective dispells most of my good ideas - but frankly I'm okay with being wrong - so long as I get to learn something.
When my manager roadblocks me in the name of expediency, I still learn. I just learn I have a bad manager.
I'm just going to pretend I haven't read the latest ballooning of the financial sector bailout and focus on something I got by email. If you read this blog, odds are you got the same email, but it's worth a repeat.
MB sent it.
This week holds three anniversaries that should get more attention:
Forty two years ago, we lost Apollo 1
Twenty three years ago, we lost Challenger
Six years ago, we lost the Columbia.
Seventeen of the very best we could offer were destroyed pursing a shared dream of exploration.
Like all astronauts, they were exceptional. People who chose to challenge themselves, with advanced degrees, national service. The personification of what you reach for when you want to inspire your children. These people are heroes. They did what the rest of us feared to try.
- and they were all killed by the failings of others.
Thinking of these crews inspires equal measures of inspiration and fury. To work that hard, only to die on the dream's edge.
Our best deserve better.
MB sent the words to a song called Phoenix, by Julia Ecklar - that has just the right sentiment:
In a tower of flame in capsule 12
I was there
I know not where they laid my bones
It could be anywhere
But when fire and smoke had faded
The darkness left my sight
And I found my soul in a spaceship’s hull
Riding home on a trail of light
And my wings are made of tungsten
My flesh of glass and steel
I am the joy of Terra for the power that I wield
Once upon a lifetime I died a pioneer
Now I sing within a spaceship’s heart
Does anybody hear?
Before each morning’s launch
They know that I am there
"To the soul that warms this vessel’s hull"
They say a silent prayer
I am father, ship and spirit
Of the dream for which they strive
For I am man at the hands of man
See us rocket for the sky
And my wings are made of tungsten
My flesh of glass and steel
I am the joy of Terra for the power that I wield
Once upon a lifetime I died a pioneer
Now I sing within a spaceship’s heart
Does anybody hear?
My thunder rends the morning skies
Yes, I am here
Though lost to flame when I was man
I ride her without fear
For I am more than man now
And man built me with pride
I led the way and I lead the way
Of man's future in the sky
And my wings are made of tungsten
My flesh of glass and steel
I am the joy of Terra for the power that I wield
Once upon a lifetime I died a pioneer
Now I sing within a spaceship’s heart
Does anybody hear?
--------
Apollo 1 - January 27, 1967
Virgil I. "Gus" Grissom
Edward H. White II
Roger B. Chaffee
Challenger - January 28, 1986
Francis "Dick" Scobee
Michael J. Smith
Judith Resnik
Ellison Onizuka
Ronald McNair
Gregory Jarvis
Sharon Christa McAuliffe
Columbia - February 1, 2003
Rick D. Husband
William C. McCool
Michael P. Anderson
Ilan Ramon
Kalpana Chawla
David M. Brown
Laurel Clark
-----
Late edit:
It seemed stupid to attribute something to a pseudonym I created. The email was from MB.
NASA has published their report on the Columbia disaster's crew.
Although no quantitative conclusion can be made regarding the cabin depressurization rate, it is probable that the cabin depressurization rate was high enough to incapacitate the crew in a matter of seconds.
[snip]
These findings strongly suggest that despite the very dynamic vehicle motion, the [pilot] was still capable of taking appropriate actions to attempt a recovery of the hydraulic pressure by performing a [hydraulic] restart...
...Based on the panel R2 switch throws and the lack of visors being lowered, it is probable that the crew never realized that the vehicle LOC situation was unrecoverable and had become a survival situation.
Footage of the moon passing in front of the earth.
Yes, you've seen it in movies - but this would be actual footage taken from a spacecraft.
Since no human being in all of our history has ever been past the moon - to say this is a rare visual is a bit of an understatement.
BadAstronomy's Phil Plait gushes out some perspective:
I think their real impact is the visceral one from simply seeing them. As Carl Sagan once said: everyone you have ever met, every human who has lived and died, lived out their lives on that blue ball. And yet here we are, in the 21st century, plains apes allowed to evolve and satiate their curiosity, now with the ability to lob metal proxies into deep space, look back, and see ourselves.
