Social, Cultural and Educational Legacies - ER - NASA

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Preventing Land MineExplosions—Saving Liveswith Rocket PowerEvery month, approximately 500people—including civilians andchildren—are killed or maimed byaccidental contact with land mines.Estimates indicate as many as 60to 120 million active land mines arescattered across more than 70 countries,including areas where hostilitieshave ceased. Worldwide, many of themore than 473,000 surviving victimsrequire lifelong care.In 1990, the US Army solicited existingor short-term solutions to in-field mineneutralization with the ideal solutionidentified as a device that was effective,versatile, inexpensive, easy to carry,and easy to use, but not easily convertedto a military weapon.Rocket Science—An Intelligent SolutionThe idea of using leftover shuttlepropellant to address this humanitariancrisis can be traced back to late 1998when shuttle contractor Thiokol(Utah) suggested that a flare, loadedwith propellant, could do the job.To validate the concept, engineerstested their idea on small motors.These miniature rocket motors, nolarger than a D-size battery, were usedin research and development effortsfor ballistics characterization. Withsome refinements, by late 1999, theflare evolved into a de-mining devicethat measures 133 mm (5 in.) in lengthby 26 mm (1 in.) in diameter, weighsonly 90 grams (3.2 oz), and burns forapproximately 60 seconds. NASAand Thiokol defined an agreement touse the excess propellant.The Thiokol de-mining flare used excess shuttlepropellant resulting from Solid Rocket Motorcasting operations to burn through land minecasings and safely ignite the explosives containedwithin. The flares were activated with an electricmatch or a pyrotechnic fuse.Ignition Without Detonation—How It WorksThe de-mining flare device is ignited byan electric match or a pyrotechnic fuse;it neutralizes mines by quickly burningthrough the casing and igniting theexplosive fill without detonation.The benefit of this process includesminimizing the destructive effect ofdemolition, thereby preventing shrapnelfrom forming out of metallic andthick-cased targets. The flares are simpleand safe to use, and require minimaltraining. The flare tube can be mountedon a three-legged stand for betterpositioning against the target case.These de-mining flares weretested against a variety of mines atvarious installations. These trialswent well and generated much interest.Thiokol funded further developmentto improve production methods andease deployment.All branches of the US armed serviceshave purchased the flare. It has beensuccessfully used in Kosovo, Lebanon,Jordan, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti,Nicaragua, Iraq, and Afghanistan, andhas been shown to be highly effective.LifeShear Cutters to theRescue—Powerful Jaws MoveLife-threatening ConcreteHi-Shear Technology Corporation ofTorrance, California, used NASAderivedtechnology to develop apyrotechnic-driven cutting tool thatneutralized a potentially life-threateningsituation in the bombed Alfred P. MurrahFederal Building in Oklahoma City,Oklahoma, in April 1995. Using Jawsof Life heavy-duty rescue cutters, afirefighter from the Federal EmergencyManagement Agency Task Force teamsliced through steel reinforcing cablesthat suspended an 1,814.4-kg (2-ton)slab of concrete, dropping the slab sixstories. It took only 30 seconds to set upand use the cutters.The shuttle used pyrotechnic chargesto release the vehicle from itshold-down posts on the launch pad,the Solid Rocket Boosters from theExternal Tank after their solid fuel wasspent, and the tank from the shuttlejust prior to orbit. This type ofpyrotechnical separation technologywas applied in the early 1990s to thedevelopment of a new generation oflightweight portable emergency rescuecutters for freeing accident victimsfrom wreckage. Known as LifeShearcutters, they were developed under acooperative agreement that teamedNASA and Hi-Shear TechnologyCorporation. Hi-Shear incorporated thispyrotechnic feature into their Jaws ofLife heavy-duty rescue cutters. Thedevelopment project was undertakento meet the need of some 40,000 USfire departments for modern, low-costemergency cutting equipment.Hi-Shear Technology Corporationdeveloped, manufactured, and suppliedpyrotechnically actuated thrusters,492Industries and Spin-offs
explosive bolts, pin pullers, andcutters, and supplied such equipmentfor a number of NASA deep-spacemissions plus the Apollo/Saturn,Skylab, and shuttle.The key technology for the LifeShearcutter is a tailored power cartridge—a miniature version of the cartridgesthat actuated pyrotechnic separationdevices aboard the shuttle. Standardcutting equipment employs expensivegasoline-powered hydraulic pumps,hoses, and cutters for use in accidentextraction. The Jaws of Life rescuetool requires no pumps or hoses,and takes only about 30 seconds toready for use. It can sever automotiveclutch and brake pedals or cut quicklythrough roof posts and pillars toremove the roof of an automobile.Firefighters can clear an egress routethrough a building by cutting throughreinforcement cable and bars in acollapsed structure situation.NASA-developed tool, licensed under the name“LifeShear,” used at the bombed Alfred P. MurrahFederal Building (1995), Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.The Ultimate Test CableTesting DeviceIt’s hard to imagine, when looking at amassive launch vehicle or aircraft, thata problem with one tiny wire couldparalyze performance. Faults in wiringare a serious concern for the aerospaceand aeronautic (commercial, military,and civil) industries. The shuttle hadcircuits go down because of faultyinsulation on wiring. STS-93 (1999)experienced a loss of power when oneengine experienced a primary powercircuit failure and a second engine hada backup power circuit fault. A numberof accidents occurred as a result offaulty wiring creating shorts or opens,causing the loss of control of theaircraft or arcing and leading to firesand explosions. Some of thoseaccidents resulted in loss of lives,such as in the highly publicized TWAFlight 800 accident in 1996.With the portable Standing WaveReflectometer cable tester, it waspossible to accurately pinpointmalfunctions within cables and wires toreliably verify conditions of electricalpower and signal distribution. Thisincluded locating problems insideshuttle. One of its first applications atKennedy Space Center (KSC) was toKennedySpace Centerengineersconduct wirefault testingusing portableStanding WaveReflectometer.From leftto right:Ken Hosterman;John Jones; andPedro Medelius(inventor).detect intermittent wire failures in acable used in the Solid Rocket Boosters.The Standing Wave Reflectometercable tester checked a cable withminimal disruption to the system undertest. Personnel frequently had tode-mate both ends of cables whentroubleshooting a potential instrumentproblem to verify that the cable wasnot the source of the problem. Once acable was de-mated, all systems thathad a wire passing through theconnector had to be retested when thecable was reconnected. This resulted inmany labor-hours of revalidationtesting on systems that were unrelatedto the original problem. The cost wasexorbitant for retesting procedures. Thesame is true for aeronautical systems,where airplanes have to be checkedfrequently for faulty cables and sensors.The most useful method and advantageof the Standing Wave Reflectometertechnology over other existent types oftechnologies is the ability to measurefrom one end of a cable, and to docomparative-type testing withcomponents and avionics still installed.Eclypse International Corporation,Corona, California, licensed andmarketed two commercial versions ofthe Standing Wave ReflectometersIndustries and Spin-offs493
Page 1 and 2: Social,Cultural, andEducationalLega
Page 3 and 4: Social Impact—NASAReflects Americ
Page 5 and 6: astronaut classes that NASA selecte
Page 8 and 9: to “Astronauts Young, [Robert]Cri
Page 10 and 11: the unique opportunity to experienc
Page 12: Education:InspiringStudents asOnly
Page 16 and 17: Project StarshineProject Starshine
Page 18 and 19: Toys in Space: InnovativeWays to Te
Page 20 and 21: Sciences Corporation,11 years later
Page 22 and 23: Using documentation on the special
Page 24 and 25: College EducationUndergraduateEngin
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Page 28 and 29: Industriesand Spin-offsIndustriesAe
Page 30 and 31: companies were inspired by earlierw
Page 32 and 33: The DeBakey VAD ® functions as a
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Page 40 and 41: The ShuttleContinuum,Role of HumanS
Page 42 and 43: Inspiring Students Through Human Sp
Page 44 and 45: What’s Next for Human Spaceflight
Page 46 and 47: Global Community Through Space Expl
Page 48 and 49: The Legacy of the “Space Shuttle
Page 50 and 51: The Canadian astronaut program has
Page 52 and 53: Inspiring GenerationsLeah Jamieson,
Page 54 and 55: The Legacy of the Space ShuttleMich
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Social, Cultural and Educational Legacies - ER - NASA

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