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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 9, 2003)
7A Tuesday, September 9, 2003 SCI-TECH THE BATTALION ptember 9,20 solutio ASA’s next shuttle will ractice repair techniques t the RIAA. t remains to be - of the I ,t>00 cutir :na ill even bept so, to what de conviction of & of which were tk. iy, the RlAA'sthrt. is no weight Ait >mmands little rtc t users, as the m law suits doesn’tbr cians, but instes: By Marcia Dunn THE ASSOCIATED PRESS J industry's auercr. mg through «m ana oil not work. Ft; ' to illegal!) sham Ds are overpriced! more than a despr to change that m tHE BATTALION SPACE CENTER, Houston NASA said Monday that wfhen shuttle launches resume sometime next year, the first mis- 1 on will essentially be a test ■gilt, with astronauts inspecting ■eir ship and practicing repair techniques to guard against aiother Columbia-type disaster. The space agency considered ing the minimum number of tronauts and keeping the mis sion as short as possible. But ASA decided to go with a full t of six or seven astronauts on a irmal-length mission of about a eek and a half to perform some erdue repair work at the inter- fliiiional space station. “If we’re going to go through 1 this risk to get there and do at, we ought to go ahead and ake sure that we do some of ose things that are important to international space station ;cause if we don’t do those ings, it raises the risk of the sta in,” said Bill Parsons, the new shuttle program manager. I No firm launch date has been sei for the next shuttle, Atlantis. But in all likelihood, it will not deliver a fresh crew to the space Sation as originally intended. I Instead, the focus will be on Bspecting the shuttle for exterior ^■image, using cameras on both the shuttle and space station, and practicing repair techniques. Other objectives, like deliver- | ing supplies to the space station, ^■ill take a back seat, said ^Killiam Readdy, a former shuttle I commander who is now NASA’s top spaceflight official. I Readdy said the next flight may not represent as much of a shakedown as the first shuttle trip in 1981, a two-day mission by Columbia and just two pilots. But he noted: “This is really and truly a developmental test flight getting back to building and assembling the space sta tion” and implementing all 15 of the Columbia accident board’s recommendations required for return to flight. NASA has yet to settle on all the details of an emergency res cue plan. But in a 156-page retum-to- flight report issued Monday, the space agency said it is looking at using the space station as an emergency shelter for stranded shuttle astronauts and consider ing having another spacecraft ready to blast off on a rescue mission. We will be safety- driven and not schedule-driven. 99 — William Readdy NASA spaceflight official “Our first line of defense is: Don’t have any debris come off and strike the shuttle. The second line is to have inspection tech niques and repair capabilities so we can come home safely,” Parsons said. The release of NASA’s initial return-to-flight plan comes two weeks after the Columbia Accident Investigation Board concluded that a stray piece of insulating foam and a broken safety culture were responsible for the shuttle’s destruction on Feb. 1. All seven astronauts were killed. Readdy stressed that the plan is “a living document” that will evolve in the coming weeks and months. Some NASA officials have talked about resuming shuttle flights as early as March, but most have said privately that next summer would be a more realis tic estimate. “Whether that turns out to be March or April or May or June or July, so be it. We will be safety- driven and not schedule-driven,” Readdy said. The biggest challenge, offi cials said, will be to come up with a repair for the vulnerable carbon panels that protect the leading edges of the shuttle wings. The leading edge of Columbia’s left wing suffered a 6- to 10-inch hole from being hit with the foam. NASA is looking for outside help in coming up with a lead ing-edge patch capable of with standing the thousands of degrees of re-entry heat. Atlantis will be launched in daylight to ensure good camera views of the foam insulation on the external fuel tank and any debris hitting the spaceship. Readdy said shuttles will be restricted to daylight liftoffs for the foreseeable future. As for the newly ordered inspections, the astronauts will connect an extension boom to the end of the shuttle’s 50-foot robot arm and check the underside of the wings and the ship’s belly for damage. Cameras and lasers will be mounted on the end of the boom; the lasers will measure the depth of any gashes. Readdy and other officials said they do not know yet how much all the improvements will cost. As for the steps necessary to fix NASA’s broken culture, those will take longer and require help from outside experts, Readdy said. Teen tanning rates ‘alarming’ By Lindsey Tanner THE ASSOCIATED PRESS n w, I CHICAGO — A study found that nearly a third of white teenage girls in the United States have used tanning booths at least three times, suggest ing an alarming number of teens are ignoring the dangers of skin cancer for the sake of sporting a good tan. | Twenty-eight percent of teenage girls and 7 percent of boys reported using tanning booths three or more times, the nationally representative study found. Forty-seven percent of girls aged 18 and 19 reported use that frequent. I “Teenagers may think they look good now, but the sad part is that by the time they reach 60, their skin will look like a leather bag and they’ll be pay ing a dermatologist to try to reverse the damage,” said Dr. Ted Daly, director of pediatric dermatol ogy at Nassau University Medical Center in New ffork, who was not involved in the study. The study and an accompanying editorial )pear in the September issue of Archives of 5 ediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, published londay. j The Case Western Reserve University researchers analyzed data from 6,903 white teens who answered questions in a separate national survey on adolescent health in 1996. Indoor tanning was most popular in the Midwest, where sunny weather is limited, and the South, where heat and humidity might make out door tanning uncomfortable. The study’s lead author, Case Western researcher Catherine Demko, said there’s evi dence that indoor tanning might contribute to the risk for malignant melanoma, the most serious kind of skin cancer. Indoor tanners also were more likely to smoke, drink or use marijuana than paler adolescents, the researchers said. “Tan skin beats a healthy vampire glow every time,” said Dr. Robert Dellavalle, a Denver der matologist. He wrote an accompanying editorial proposing a $20 tax per tanning session for kids under 18, which he said might help curb demand and increase funds for more skin cancer aware ness campaigns. “Since youth represents an especially critical period during which UV radiation increases skin cancer risk, altering tanning behavior of minors is a prime target of skin cancer prevention efforts,” Dellavalle said. Many teens are attracted to tanning booths because salons promote them as being safer than natural sunlight, which isn’t true, Daly said. “An occasional visit to the tanning booth may not be so bad, but teens should not go on a week ly basis or over the long-term,” he said. Grand Opening Special!! s 1.79 Cleaners (Discount Price...Not Quality) 1.79 Dry Clean! gj 505 University Dr. E (next to Fox & Hound) • 260-1991 Impact Your Community. —Discover Yourself. Serve. Volunteer Opportunities Fair September 9 & 10, 2003 10 am - 2 pm MSC Flagroom Sponsored by the Volunteer Services Center http://vsc.tamu.edu WELLS FAP&O, ePYAN/COLLESE STATION LOeeiES WILL BE OPEN M ONOA y-FPIPA Y PAM -GPM THPU SEPTEMBEP IP™. HA VE >4 SPEA T SEMESTEP ASS' uNiveesiry oe. 300 SOUTHWBST pxwy. 1301 eoct: peAieie eo. 3000 eeiAeceesr SOI NOPTH HAPV£y MITCHELL PKWy. 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