1.Research the disasters of the Challenger and Columbia space shuttles.What ethical questions did these disasters raise,...

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Civil Engineering

1.Research the disasters of the Challenger and Columbia spaceshuttles.What ethical questions did these disasters raise, bothfrom a human and an engineering perspective? Perhaps, investigateother well-known tragedies in the automobile, nuclear, shipping,construction, or other industries. What do they illustrate aboutethics and engineering decisions?

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the disasters ofthe Challenger and Columbia space shuttlesThe disaster was the second fatal accident inthe Space Shuttle program after the 1986 breakupof Challenger soon after liftoff During thelaunch of STS107 Columbias 28th mission apiece of foam insulation broke off from the SpaceShuttle external tank and struck the left wing of theorbiterSpace ShuttleColumbia LaunchThe Columbias 28th space mission designated STS107 wasoriginally scheduled to launch on January 11 2001 but was delayednumerous times for a variety of reasons over nearly two yearsColumbia finally launched on January 16 2003 with a crew ofsevenEighty seconds into the launch a piece of foam insulation brokeoff from the shuttles propellant tank and hit the edge of theshuttles left wingResidents in the area heard a loud boom and sawstreaks of smoke in the sky Debris and the remains of the crewwere found in more than 2000 locations across East Texas Arkansasand Louisiana Making the tragedy even worse two pilots aboard asearch helicopter were killed in a crash while looking fordebrisColumbiaDisaster InvestigationIn August 2003 an investigation board issued a report revealingthat it would have been possible either for the Columbia crew torepair the damage to the wing or for the crew to be rescued fromthe shuttleThe Columbia could have stayed in orbit until February 15 andthe already planned launch of the shuttle Atlantis could have beenmoved up as early as February 10 leaving a short window forrepairing the wing or getting the crew off of the ColumbiaIn the aftermath of the Columbia disaster the space shuttleprogram was grounded until July 26 2005 when the space shuttleDiscovery was launched on the programs 114th mission In July2011 the space shuttle program which began with the Columbiasfirst mission in 1981 completed its final and 135th missionflown by AtlantisFailure due tofatigueWhen a material undergoes permanent deformation from exposure toradical temperatures or constant loading the functionality of thematerial can become impairedThis timedependent plastic distortionof material is known as creep Stress and temperature are bothmajor factors of the rate of creep In order for a design to beconsidered safe the deformation due to creep must be much lessthan the strain at which failure occurs Once the static loadingcauses the specimen to surpass this point the specimen will beginpermanent or plastic deformationIn mechanical design most failures are due to timevarying ordynamic loads that are applied to a system This phenomenon isknown as fatigue failure Fatigue is known as the weakness in amaterial due to variations of stress that are repeatedly applied tosaid material For example when stretching a rubber band to acertain length without breaking it ie not surpassing the yieldstress of the rubber band the rubber band will return to itsoriginal form after release however repeatedly stretching therubber band with the same amount of force thousands of times wouldcreate microcracks in the band which would lead to the rubber bandbeing snapped The same principle is applied to mechanicalmaterials such as metalsFatigue failure always begins at a crack that may form over timeor due to the manufacturing process used The three stages offatigue failure are1 Crack initiation when repeated stress creates a fracturein the material being used2 Crack propagation when the initiated crack develops in thematerial to a larger scale due to tensile stress3 Sudden fracture failure caused by unstable crack growth tothe point where the material will failNote that fatigue does not imply that the strength of thematerial is lessened after failure This notion was originallyreferred to a material becoming tired after cyclic loadingFailure due tosoftwareSoftware has played a role in many highprofile disastersAriane 5 Flight 501Mars Climate OrbiterTAURUS UK share settlement system and dematerialised centralshare depositoryTherac25 A radiation therapy See Answer

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