Posted on 06/25/2002 1:20:24 PM PDT by GeneD
The American space agency Nasa has grounded its space shuttle fleet indefinitely after finding small cracks in fuel pipes in the main engines of two shuttles. The cracks, discovered on shuttles Atlantis and Discovery, will delay the scheduled 19 July launch of Columbia, due to carry the first Israeli astronaut, Ilan Ramon, into space.
The cracks were found in metal liners used to direct fuel flow inside the main rocket motor's fuel pipes on shuttles Atlantis and Discovery.
"The concern is that ... if a piece were to crack off and go down into the engine, would that damage the engine and cause it to shut down," said Nasa spokeman James Hartsfield. "Whether that is something that could actually happen, we don't know yet."
Safety concern
"These cracks may pose a safety concern and we have teams at work investigating all aspects of the situation," said Ron Dittemore, NASA's shuttle program manager. "This is a very complex issue and it is early in the analysis. Right now there are more questions than answers."
Engineers found the first crack during an inspection of "flow liners" - thin pieces of metal that aid the flow in fuel pipes - as they were installing engines in Atlantis more than a week ago.
Subsequent testing found other cracks in both Atlantis, which is 17 years old, and Discovery, which is 19. Columbia, the oldest of the four shuttles in the fleet at 21 years old, is to be inspected.
Because it takes a week or so to remove a shuttle's engines and the same amount of time to reinstall them, Columbia's forthcoming mission on 19 July has been delayed indefinitely.
NASA engineers will try to determine if the problem is a flaw introduced at the time the flow liners were installed in the shuttles or whether the cracks are a problem of age.
The liners act as sleeves inside the hydrogen fuel line in the plumbing for the shuttle's engine. NASA is working to determine whether the problem is limited to that one liner, which was in a bellows, where the fuel line bends.
"We've never seen these (cracks) before," said James Hartsfield. "The flow liners have been in the shuttles since day one. We have begun an analysis to try to understand it."
And he created the Alpha Lyman Forest too, gravitational lensing, already exploded supernovae, The Cosmic Microwave background, orbital perturbations, Colliding galaxies, stellar nurseries, neutron stars, pulsars, etc. All which point to a 15 billion year old (or so) universe? Sure!
Yes
Are you not just a little ashamed by the fact that the only major writer in the science fiction genre who honors Jesus Christ is a Mormon?
Why would I care about sci fi writers not being Christians. Are they great philosophers in your mind?
Yes, absolutely, you should study DNA and cell structure. It's pretty amazing too, as it's Creator.
All which point to a 15 billion year old (or so) universe?
Or so you've been told and you believe with all your heart.
PS: Isn't the Hubble Deep field cool, now the new CCD does it in 1/10th the time.
Socialism of a different color, that's all it is. NASA is every bit as unconstitutional as the National Endowment for the Arts. But, just try to get any of these sciencewonks to admit it!
I noticed that too. I wondered if they are the same people who despise welfare and social security. ;-)
No, but their readers tend to be people of ability and imagination, the kind of folks who grow up to make things happen. Something about the way we are designed equips us with a desire to make a positive contribution to our world, to imprint history with our lives. This desire is especially characteristic of males -- and science fiction's primary audience is male.
One of the most virile schools of thought in today's Christianity can be described as "calvinism on steroids." These people have an optimistic expectation of the future, convinced that God is honored by excellence, by achievement, by creativity -- and that He will bless that which honors Him. Interestingly enough, a lot of folks in this sub-set of the Christian culture grew up on R. A. Heinlein, the apostate Baptist!
Dispensationalism undermines excellence, since high achievement can't happen if it's already ruled out as too time-consuming! Why try to build for the generations if you are a member of the terminal generation?
Suppose, though, you started by assuming that God gives us all the time we need to do all the things we need to do -- personally, and/or through those we influence. (I love science fiction, but write the stuff folks only read under duress, operator's manuals. My 18 y.o. son writes in the genre, and may very well get published before I do. You may recall was Augustine said of Adeotus, his son -- "The only man who I wished to see excell me in every way.")
Do you pray for unborn descendents who will be mighty in godly influence in the 22nd century? If not, why not?
Do you pray for unborn descendents who will be mighty in godly influence in the 22nd century? If not, why not?
No. I pray that there never is a 22nd century.
Both appeal to the intelligent and literate reader! In statistics you call this pattern "quasi-causality" -- the two topisms are found together, and you can't really say the one causes the other.
No. I pray that there never is a 22nd century.
Alas, poor biblewonk! How sad, straitened, gloomy, and narrow your universe is! My universe is bigger, friendlier, and happier than your universe! I grieve for the Jews, who still in their error are waiting for the Savior, and for the dispensationalists, who are still in their error waiting for their Lord. (for the time being, they think they can only trust Jesus to be their guru, their "personal spiritual advisor!")
The world is sad and gloomy and full of sin and death. Yes I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, but I will fear no evil.
God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son that whosoever shall believe in him shall not die but have everlasting life.
In your universe, you still die, not me in mine.
The idea of "go to heaven, go directly to heaven, do not pass death" does explain some of the appeal of the rapture cult. Like all sound Christians of all ages, I anticipate "the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting, Amen." I expect I'll get there the hard way, by way of the church yard!
Meanwhile, let the dead bury the dead. The living have work to do!
1cor15:51,52: Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the turmpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
I'm sure this means something different to a good and well studied Christian like yourself.
Obviously you and I have nothing more to discuss.
Obviously
If you aren't horrified by the thought of death, then something is wrong with you. Death separates loved ones. Death destroys all hope for the unbeliever. Death is not good. That a person may overcome death is a great and wonderful thing, but that does not make death good.
Not to put too fine a point on it, but you venture dangerously close to the territory of the Pharisees, who longed for the "day of the Lord" not understanding that for them it would bring only judgement, wrath, and death, even national death.
Advancing medicine is a wonderful thing. Life is a beautiful gift from God, not a curse to be sloughed off at the first opportunity.
A few pieces of verses off the top of my head:
"Where oh death is thy victory, where oh grave is thy sting"
"Who were in bondage to the fear of death all their lives"
"To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord"
"To live is Christ and to die is gain"
Paul was torn between wanting to die and go be with the Lord but knew that it was helpful for the Church if he stayed here. You are wrong minded on this, and many other things.
I can dredge up tons of verses too where the point is made that what comes after death is better than what comes before. But death itself is a punishment and a curse that will be done away with.
Why did Jesus weep at Lazarus' death? Why did He ressurect the dead? Why heal the sick? Why did He dread His own death? Jesus obviously did not have the same morbid fascination you do, and He knew a lot more about it than you.
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