White Elephant (Idle Words)

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2025-01-22 08:00:08

There's a dispiriting article in the Washington Post this week entitled "Space Shuttles Bound to Technologies of the Past". It's not dispiriting for what it says - there are good points, and quotes from knowledgeable people - but rather for a certain kind of attitude towards technology that shows the science reporter doesn't really get it.

The article is correct in diagnosing the problem - instead of being a reliable, if unglamorous, space truck, the shuttle as it now exists is a fabulously expensive vintage roadster. It isn't just that there are no spare parts being made - we don't even have the machines to make the spare parts. The production lines are gone, and in many cases the expertise to build the production lines is gone, frittered away through decades of attrition. It would cost more to build a new shuttle now than it did to develop the original program.

What's troubling is the slant of the article. Early on, we hear from one critic of the program, a University of Maryland engineer who was asked by NASA to evaluate the shuttle's robotic arm: Pecht found that the arm was still in good working order. But while the engineer answered NASA's questions, the space agency never answered his. "Why are we using this old technology?" he asked repeatedly. "Why don't we change the ways we buy and design so we can always be updating, so we can always be putting in the latest technology? I could never get the clearest answer on that."