Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, February 10, 1994 TAG: 9402090041
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Joel Achenbach
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
A: We aren't going to join the chorus of critics who bash NASA simply because it's had a few bad breaks, like failing to notice that the Hubble Space Telescope still had the lens cap on. These things happen! And of course the Mars Observer disappeared, but we strongly suspect that the craft will be rediscovered if the NASA scientists look in the vicinity of Venus. Find it, and no questions asked!
The sound system problem is a bit puzzling. Back in 1969, Neil Armstrong stepped on the moon and famously said, "That's (crackle) one small step (crackle) for man, one giant (crackle) leap for mankind." It was a great line except that it didn't make a jot of sense: "man" and "mankind" are synonymous. So Armstrong explained that he said "for a man," but that the radio cut off the word "a." Cynics claim Armstrong just blew it.
In any case, NASA's equipment has improved somewhat since then, but there's still a strikingly shoddy quality to the sound coming from the Space Shuttle astronauts. Why can't they get it together?
The first NASA spokesman we talked to suggested that the Shuttle carries lightweight audio transmitting equipment, and that this doesn't have the size or heft to transmit a strong signal. He noted that the Shuttle on the launchpad weighs 4.5 million pounds, almost all of which is the weight of the fuel, with the Shuttle itself weighing only about 250,000 pounds.
But then we spoke to an engineer, Eddie Burrell, subsystem manager for the Shuttle Audio Distribution System, and he told us the terrible truth:
1. The interior of the shuttle is noisy as heck. There are all kinds of fans and compressors and gadgets humming and whining. Therefore they have to use a special "noise canceling" microphone that blocks out background noise. The problem is, it can also block out your voice if you are speaking from too far away, and if the microphone is too close to your lips there are explosion noises when you utter your p's and b's.
2. The Shuttle is an ancient technology. You have to remember that the Shuttle was designed back in the 1970s, in the days of 8-track tapes. The Audio Distribution System has a relatively narrow frequency range. The bigger problem is that it isn't portable, but rather is permanently fixed onto the spacecraft. Those Space Shuttles can't easily upgrade their sound systems the way you can at home.
"All that equipment was built back in the '70s and that has not changed," said Burrell. "It's physically bolted to the structure of the orbiter."
It would cost a lot to redesign the audio equipment and there's no major incentive to do that, since the controllers in Houston can usually understand the astronauts just fine. Still, it's kind of embarrassing: Our space ships don't always use space-age technology.
Q: Why do some people think watching birds is fascinating?
A: The Why staff actually went on a birdwalk not long ago and found it to be a lovely experience even though our attitude toward birds is that they are basically large, feathery insects. Peering through binoculars at some tiny shape hidden in tree branches high overhead, waiting for confirmation of the bird's species, we found ourselves thinking: This is murder on the neck.
Seriously, there is something wonderful about going "birding," despite the strict prohibition against bringing along a BB gun. All hobbies are slightly inexplicable but we think we understand why there are millions of birdwatchers (or "birders," as the hard-core types call themselves).
Obviously there are aesthetic considerations: Birds are pretty. They are colorful. They dive for fish, peck on wood, fly through the air. "It can be really a pleasure to watch a bird behave. To watch a heron fishing, for example," says Claudia Wilds, an editor at Birding magazine.
There's also the aesthetic appeal of being in the wild, of getting outside and mixing it up with other species.
But still. C'mon. Birds and trees and woods are nice but are they nice enough to make you want to leap out of a perfectly decent bed at 5 a.m. and wander off in the rain and mud in pursuit of some rare tern? So there must be other reasons.
It's an intellectual challenge. There are 10,000 species of birds. Identifying them requires careful study of field guides. Birders are amateur ornithologists, which is to say, they're practically scientists.
"For a lot of people it's a great challenge. It's a learned skill to be able to identify species in the field," says Mary Deinlein, a bird conservation specialist with the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center.
And finally, birding is a competitive sport. Birders keep "life lists" of all the birds they've seen. (The honor system applies.) They have separate lists for their back yards. Seeing birds is like collecting stamps or coins, or like "plane spotting," that birder-like behavior that causes Brits to travel the globe jotting down the serial numbers of airplanes they've seen, hoping to catalog every plane in an airline's fleet.
Some hobbies are really obsessions. It's hard to discern the difference sometimes. Either way, birders take birding seriously. Our main advice: If you go on a birdwalk, try to be sensitive. And yes, that means leaving the slingshot at home.
Washington Post Writers Group
by CNB