Apparently with the new Obama administration version of NASA, failure IS an option.
One of the biggest space disasters ever, the Challenger disaster, was caused by FREEZING COLD WEATHER and idiotic management that ignored risks related to cold weather as warned by engineers.
I have a pretty hard time believing that about a degree of warming is going to cause all these woes. That and the fact that NASA has had a nearly 9 year hurricane free window in Florida to not worry about launches.
From EcoWatch:
NASA programs are being put in jeopardy by the impacts of climate change, including rising sea levels, high temperatures and humidity, wind, heat waves and extreme storms, which could impact such high-profile NASA sites as its Kennedy Space CenterNASA identifies a number of potential risks, including damaged infrastructure, power failures that threaten communications systems, delayed launches, employee health and safety concerns, contamination and even threats to endangered species. It says it could expect the loss of land essential to launch operations, experience extensive downtime when its systems are disrupted, and asks “Given the already degraded condition of much of NASA’s infrastructure portfolio, how will NASA find the money to conduct necessary adaptations, repair failing infrastructure, and maintain mission tempo?”…The report is one of two dozen released by the federal government Friday that address what steps various government agencies are taking to address climate change.
They need to remember what Dr. Richard Feynman said about NASA’s failure to embrace what is really important:
For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled. – Feynmans closing words, Appendix F – Personal Observations on Reliability of Shuttle
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Well judging by their latest failure, they can strike GW off the Threat Risk List. If they re-appropriated the space exploration funding from the GW funding these frequency of failures will likely reduce.
NASA has bigger problems to worry about than climate change.
Oh, I second NASA’s concerns entirely. I have personal experience in how climate change will threaten our space program. I mean, just the other week I was on my way to Mars. You would not believe how crappy the weather was. Whew! Whiteout conditions. Crosswinds. And you’re stuck traveling through that crap for maybe a year or more. That global warming, I’ll tell ya’, its got one heckuva long reach.
Glad you made it back OK. Did you bring back any trinkets from the indigenous folks?
I think its fairly obvious what happened – they were approached by the president and asked how their operations might be affected by climate change. Instead of either responding “nothing” or “what climate change?” the management of NASA fell in line with the current group-think. The wrong stuff indeed!
Try this for the real story:
http://kottke.org/13/01/richard-feynman-and-the-space-shuttle-challenger-investigation
NASA no longer pioneers of space exploration; it’s just another bureaucracy.
“Given the already degraded condition of much of NASA’s infrastructure portfolio, how will NASA find the money to conduct necessary adaptations, repair failing infrastructure, and maintain mission tempo?”
the words Already Degraded…..like having a rusty roof and then it rains hey?
Any excuse will do, other than the fact that NASA has allowed itself to blunder about for decades and now we have people in space and no home-grown way to retrieve them. Apparently we have no domestic means to send them food or anything else, too.
And the labor unions, environmentalists and regular taxpayers complain when a private company “outsources” something.
NASA devotes a lot of their budget to garbage science. Under Obama they gave become a propaganda website. They do need to be shut down and their budget reassigned to a new solar system exploration agency. The earth observation satellites should be run by a new National Ocean, Atmosphere and near space agency (NOANSA). Space telescopes should go to the NSF.
NASA – Not allowed to use Actual Satellite data in climate Announcements.
Fernando Leanme – either your suggestion or a new catch-all Obama agency, maybe the ONCPCA, Obama’s no-credibility politically correct agency. It’s very sad.