For those who may not have been able to watch today's STS-107 accident briefing, much of it was old news and (I'm about to editorialize here) reporters asking the same already answered questions and sounding like they were just trying to get some air time. However, two things I had not heard before had to do with the crew near the end and debris west of Texas. A reporter asked about the "California debris" and asked if such debris had been confirmed. The reply was that "I'm not aware that we have confirmed any debris as being shuttle debris west of Ft. Worth." The speaker had commented earlier that a lot of "junk" had been turned in, including, if you can believe this, a piece of burnt toast. The next reporter asked "Is there any evidence, and/or your personal opinion, about whether the astronauts were aware in the minutes before you lost communications that there was a significant or serious problem." The answer was "Absolutely no evidence, no communication to the ground, no voice of concern, data was looking fine, there doesn't appear to be any indicator that says the crew was doing anything off nominal." Patrick -- Patrick Wiggins NASA Solar System Ambassador to Utah http://planet.state.ut.us 435.882.1209 (observatory) 801.918.9092 (cell)
I wonder if software alone, or perhaps software combined with a seeing monitor/recorder, could work as well as a deformable optical surface driven by a seeing monitor? Re-construct a diffraction-limited image from the data later...is this an old idea, or a dead end? I'm envisioning a green laser pointer, or relatively inexpensive component laser module, monitor telescope with CCD, all riding on the main instrument with the imaging CCD...might need a collimator on the laser also. I'm thinking that by not doing it in real-time you can reduce the computing demands on the hardware. Enough to make a difference? Incorrect assumption? What does the FAA say about lasers shooting into the sky? Brent, Rich, and any other computer experts on the list? C. __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now. http://mailplus.yahoo.com
participants (2)
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Chuck Hards -
Patrick Wiggins