Challenger Disaster - 35 Years Ago Today 28 January
Discussion
A topic discussed in engineering ethics for engineering degree courses far and wide.
The issue being it was the Morton-Thiokol engineers who designed it warning about the high potential risk, it was the non-technical management who pushed for launch. Maybe it should be explained to those doing an MBA instead of those doing a B.Sc.?
And who can forget Feynman’s laser logic in describing what happens with O-ring rubber in iced water as to where the problem may lie?
https://youtu.be/raMmRKGkGD4
Undergraduate material science - glass transition temperatures of polymer rubber
How could they be so stupid?
The issue being it was the Morton-Thiokol engineers who designed it warning about the high potential risk, it was the non-technical management who pushed for launch. Maybe it should be explained to those doing an MBA instead of those doing a B.Sc.?
And who can forget Feynman’s laser logic in describing what happens with O-ring rubber in iced water as to where the problem may lie?
https://youtu.be/raMmRKGkGD4
Undergraduate material science - glass transition temperatures of polymer rubber
How could they be so stupid?
The list of non-astronaut spaceflight-related fatalities makes pretty sobering reading.
Starts at about half way down the page: Non astronaut fatalities
Starts at about half way down the page: Non astronaut fatalities
If you haven't read it, Riding Rockets by Mike Mullane is a pretty gripping warts and all story of the perils, both real and political, of being an astronaut on the Space Shuttle program., highly recommended.
The parts that cover the lead up to the launch, the failure and the recovery/investigation of Challenger are quite moving and well written.
The parts that cover the lead up to the launch, the failure and the recovery/investigation of Challenger are quite moving and well written.
Max_Torque said:
If you haven't read it, Riding Rockets by Mike Mullane is a pretty gripping warts and all story of the perils, both real and political, of being an astronaut on the Space Shuttle program., highly recommended.
The parts that cover the lead up to the launch, the failure and the recovery/investigation of Challenger are quite moving and well written.
Very much so. A great read. The "No plans past MECO" phrase demonstrates how sanguine they were, but also how painfully aware of how much a risk flying in the Shuttle was.The parts that cover the lead up to the launch, the failure and the recovery/investigation of Challenger are quite moving and well written.
Famously, it was first reported on British TV through BBC's Newsround - it was the era before 24 hour news coverage in the UK.
Later that evening (around 7 pm) BBC ran a "Newsnight Special" which discussed what might have caused the accident.
Interestingly, spaceflight journalist Tim Furniss (who went on to have some very strange ideas about this accident) was the one who almost got it right. He actually stated that one of the SRB's might not have been firing properly) which was pretty much correct.
I found this short clip from that specific broadcast.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2pMZOPPE_Y
Sadly, most of the people who took part in the programme (including Tim Furniss) are no longer with us - apart from the presenter, Peter Snow.
Channel 4 are running a documentary on the accident tonight at 10pm.
Later that evening (around 7 pm) BBC ran a "Newsnight Special" which discussed what might have caused the accident.
Interestingly, spaceflight journalist Tim Furniss (who went on to have some very strange ideas about this accident) was the one who almost got it right. He actually stated that one of the SRB's might not have been firing properly) which was pretty much correct.
I found this short clip from that specific broadcast.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2pMZOPPE_Y
Sadly, most of the people who took part in the programme (including Tim Furniss) are no longer with us - apart from the presenter, Peter Snow.
Channel 4 are running a documentary on the accident tonight at 10pm.
Edited by Eric Mc on Wednesday 28th January 12:01
Eric Mc said:
I turned over to Channel 4 last night at 10.00 pm and instead of a Challenger documentary all I could see was some stupid nonsense about Brooklyn Beckham.
Probably a sign of the times as to where the great British public's interests lie these days.
Indeed; I was at a small gathering yesterday and just as me and another chap were two sentences into an interesting discussion about Bentleys, his wife cut him dead and changed the subject to 'Traitors'. So the women yattered about that utter drivel and we went and did something else.Probably a sign of the times as to where the great British public's interests lie these days.
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