Today, ABC News 24 reported that the space shuttle Endeavour dropped off a $2B spectrometer to the International Space Station. The ABC said the spectrometer will help ‘unravel the mysteries of the universe.’ That’s an overused and almost meaningless line reporters resort to too easily. It sounds like a cross between Star Trek, Thunderbirds and Monkey.
NASA’s news release said:
The fourth day of the mission will focus on the installation of the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer-2 (AMS), a particle physics detector. The AMS is a 2-ton ring of powerful magnets and ultrasensitive detectors built to track, but not capture, cosmic rays in a search for various types of unusual matter. The 15,251-pound instrument will be connected to the outside of the International Space Station, tilted a bit so it will not interfere with any of the station’s mechanisms and storage platforms. It will be operated remotely from Earth and should not require any attention from astronauts in orbit.
The mobile transporter is in position. The crew will extract AMS using the space shuttle robotic arm at 1:56 a.m. Shortly thereafter, the station crew will wake, and at 3:01 a.m., the shuttle robotic arm will transfer AMS to the station’s robotic arm. At 3:41 a.m., the crew will manipulate the station arm to install AMS onto the starboard side of the station’s truss structure on the zenith side.
A bit of a mouthful, but it does contain chunks of useful and comprehensible information (see the bolded text). And yes, unraveling mysteries is an attempt at answering the big and important question (viz. why?). Unfortunately, the reporter’s proposed answer is too vague to succeed. Message to news writers: cut the cliché.
Comments on this entry are closed.