Prof. Yaakov Gwen explains why we must continue space exploration
4.2.2003
By: Prof. Yaakov Gwen
I'm taking a Saturday afternoon nap and suddenly I'm woken up, and I'm informed that communication with the space shuttle Columbia has been terminated. I immediately ran in front of the TV screen and then it became clear to me that 16 minutes before the scheduled landing time, contact with the spacecraft was lost. From the knowledge I gained on the subject of 'satellite communication', I initially thought that the connection was broken due to the ionization phenomenon that causes the transmission and reception antennas to be wrapped in a plasma sheath. At altitudes between 50 and 400 km above the earth there are layers of the ionosphere, which cause the reflection of radio waves and made communication and transmission possible over long distances until the age of satellite communication that began in 1964 with the establishment of the International Satellite Organization. It is also said that the connection was cut off when the spacecraft was at an altitude of 63 km "m northeast of Dallas. However, pictures immediately appeared that showed the disintegration of the spaceship, but there was still hope in the heart expressed by Maj. Gen. Eitan Ben Eliyahu who said that Ilan Ramon and the rest of the team of astronauts were wearing space suits during the landing stages and that it is possible that they succeeded in falling despite the enormous height.
I was present two weeks ago at the press conference at the Hilton Coco Beach Hotel in Florida, on the eve of the launch of the space shuttle. Following a professional conference of the Deans of the Engineering Faculties to increase the number of engineering students and their level in the US and the world. The atmosphere in the hotel was uplifting and there were about 400 guests present, a significant portion of whom were Israelis. I saw the family of Ilan Ramon and had the privilege of speaking with his father, a Holocaust survivor, whose son was chosen to be an Israeli astronaut The first also said that when Ilan returns he will ask for amnesty for Jonathan Pollard Short and to the point because this is a serious achievement that highlights the strong cooperation with the American and Israeli people, and in this difficult time we should be proud of it. I also had interesting conversations with Americans and sat at the same table with Professor Gazit who is working on a project with NASA on the effects of weightlessness in a spacecraft on bone structure. and meet frequently with Ilan and his team. He told me that Ilan is not only a pilot but also an electronics engineer who graduated from Tel Aviv University. I was surprised that those present did not show any signs of anxiety, but I knew that the shuttles are not 300% safe despite the scientific accuracy and electronics typical of the US spaceships compared to the Russian ones. In the past, there were only two disasters of the US space agency in the launch of the shuttle in the form of a rocket: when the astronauts perished on the ground and the other During the launch of the Challenger shuttle, when the seven astronauts perished, including a Jewish teacher, but when I spoke with I refrained from talking about this issue with the Gazit family and other people so as not to cloud the atmosphere. I also met a number of Chabad followers there who also contributed to the event. Ilan also took with him into space a picture of a Jewish boy from the Terzenstein ghetto who drew what the world looks like from a man on the moon and other symbols that faithfully represent the Jewish people and Israel. Therefore, the next day when I passed a few kilometers from the place of the shipment, I stopped in the car to take some photographs of the shipment and made a short note about the shipment program from a local radio station in collaboration with Chabad Hassidim who sang "The Peacemaker in His Highness" and showed enormous enthusiasm. I was very happy that the delivery was successful because it is the most dangerous part of the space shuttle journey. For the shuttle's prolonged stay in space at an altitude of 400 to XNUMX km and during the landing hours similar to an airplane, NASA has not yet had a single malfunction that ended in disaster, although the Russians had several disasters during the landing phase as well. With the Americans, at most, when the weather conditions in Florida are bad, the shuttle makes one more turn and landed at Bundenberg Air Force Base, California, but the weather at Kennedy Base in Florida was excellent.
The moments got longer and I went through all the Israeli channels 1, 2, and 10 that showed the details of the tragic end of the space shuttle Columbia. I moved for short periods of time to the nearby sky station and the BBC to hear the NASA people directly without translation. I even heard the French station TV5 which described the sad events in a much less emotional way than the Israeli and English stations. And it only broadcast an interview with a Canadian expert with a technical background Motzek, who explained that there is a high probability that the astronauts perished, and claimed that before they lost radio contact, several sensors of the temperature in the wing stopped working to the left of the shuttle and it is possible that the disaster happened because Columbia's thermal mantle did not work because during friction with the layers of the atmosphere the temperature can reach 10000 C. He also emphasized two Canadian science experiments carried out by the spacecraft and did not mention the Israeli experiments and explained that all 7 astronauts were Scientists and not space tourists.
The other TV shows hardly mentioned the space drama. I moved to our stations and it turned out later that during shipping several porcelain blocks of the thermal mantle were damaged by an object in space and it is possible that this was the cause of the malfunction and when the spaceship broke up at an altitude of 63 km the penetration speed was more than four times the average speed. However, the astronauts were very experienced and the probability is very low Because there was a human error, because up to a height of about 10 km, the landing is carried out by mechanisms Automatic and only in the final stages of landing are manual. I remembered the interviews with the astronauts and with Ilan who showed great confidence and claimed like many others that staying in a space shuttle is much safer than traveling on roads in Israel and the world but the damned statistics determined otherwise and the terrible disaster happened. Ilan's only concern was that this last shipment on 13.1 would also be delayed. For hours, we also heard the serious and professional explanations of Ran Packer, a well-known personality who works to turn marginal youth into positive paths, a test pilot, the director of the Ministry of Science Avi Har-Evan, the Ilan Ramon family and the managers of NASA's shuttle program on the Columbia mission.
In conclusion, the loss is especially terrible for the families and members of the 7 astronauts, for the people of NASA, for the American people, for the Jewish Israeli people. Ilan's words especially stuck in my mind that the earth is very calm with its thin layer of atmosphere that must be protected and that the state of Israel is a very small and beautiful state. They were the heroes of science and risked and sacrificed their lives for the advancement of humanity and space exploration, because if we want to develop and progress, efforts must also be invested In science as well as in space exploration, considering that the population of the earth has increased a lot and in order for humanity to live comfortably, a way must be found to settle people on new planets, which requires a lot of effort. The operations and experiments carried out by Ilan and his team are only initial steps to achieve these goals. The study of science does not come at the expense of helping the hungry and the poor and educating weak populations, as stated in several articles. Canceling the space development plans and the huge budgets needed to carry them out. They will reduce the possibilities of long-term development, cause unemployment to increase and curb human development. Our sages have already said that in the absence of a vision, a people will be disturbed, and space exploration and settlement is one of the most beautiful and promising visions of humanity.
Let's hope that the sacrifice of Ilan and his friends will not be in vain as our people and the people of NASA said. After a thorough examination and the correction of the technical problems in depth, the space shuttle operations will resume and scientists will continue to strive to develop more efficient and safer means of transportation to space. Space exploration is also related to the development of solar energy as Energy is free from pollution and is essential for the well-being of the planet and its development. Therefore, people of science and technology in the world And we need to unite to increase research also in the field of space and adopt the slogan of the Entreprise literature which is also one of the three remaining space shuttles: "Try, seek to find and do not give up".
* Prof. Yaakov Gwen is the dean of the School of Electrical Engineering, Electronics and Communication at the Holon Technological Academic Institute. Prof. Gwen was invited and was present at the space shuttle launch event.
