SIGNS IN THE STS-114 Mission. An emblem can tell you much about the intention of the mission. All we do know, that they are planned to dock-on the ISS, delivering equipment stowed in the Multipurpose Logistics Module "RAPHAELLO" and are in free space on three occasions for each six and an half hours.
Astronauts Steve Robinson and Soichi Noguchi will perform three spacewalks during the mission, testing repair techniques and servicing the International Space Station. STS-114 is also called LF-1 which is explained by "Logistic flight No.1".
The first will demonstrate repair techniques on the Shuttle's protective tiles, known as the Thermal Protection System. During the second spacewalk, they'll replace one failed Control Moment Gyroscope and examining two others, which are part of four helping to keep the station oriented properly. Finally, they'll install the External Stowage Platform, a sort of space shelf for holding spare parts during Station construction.
STS-114 will also be the third trip of the Multi Purpose Logistics Module (MPLM) named Raffaello to the Station. It's essentially a "moving van" that transports supplies to the orbital outpost.
The docking on the ISS is scheduled for tomorrow, so they will have some "spare-time" of possibly arranging "something" before...
Specialist Andy Thomas says: "...So we're carrying some experiments, we're carrying clothing, we're carrying food, water, and equipment for the Station in the MPLM in the payload bay of the orbiter. We will offload those while we're docked to the Station, and then reload all the accumulated equipment and trash and detritus and whatever that needs to come back, as you might expect, from a vehicle that's been operating untended from a Shuttle for two years..."
From the offical NASA-site on the mission:
The STS-114 patch design signifies the return of the Space Shuttle to flight and honors the memory of the STS-107 Columbia crew.
The blue Shuttle rising above Earth's horizon includes the Columba constellation of seven stars, echoing the STS-107 patch and commemorating the seven members of that mission. The crew of STS-114 will carry the memory of their friends on Columbia and the legacy of their mission back into Earth orbit.
- What raised my interest immediately is that our Earth is displayed in black with red outlines of the continents. A prediction?
- The course of the pictogram of the Shuttle comes from the SOUTH-POLE heading towards the NORTH-POLE in a "slightly disturbed" path. A hint towards the magnetic field of the Earth? The pathway of the spacecraft on the logo "involves" S-America (Venezuela?), Cuba (The caribic), Washington - and Greenland - after "finding a rest" at the N-Pole. The S-Pole isn't visible.
- Its color goes from RED over two kinds of ORANGE towards YELLOW. As you wrote the bent path on the logo doesn't symbolize a "straightforward" element but an "element of distraction"...
- Again the COLUMBA-Sign as we experienced it already on STS-107 "Columbia" which ended her fate in a catastrophy for the members on board - and possibly was a great failure for that mission itself. According to the Logo of that mission showed a LASER-EMBLEM (or was it the SUN?-with 16 or 2 times 8 rays of light) "rising" over the NORTH-POLE.
- Another goal of the STS-107 was the use of a multispectral Camera in a Secret Military Mission. Israeli Astronaut Ilan Ramon spied on Iraq with such a Multispectral Camera possibbly with spectral emissions from the shuttle powered by americium-242 searching for dispose of waste gases – from chemical-weapons laboratories, for instance – useing the technique of releasing emissions under cloud cover or at nighttime to evade detection by spy satellites.
The only way to spot such "smoking-gun evidence," as in the case of Iraq's alleged chemical weapons program, was to mount a beam-generating technology, basically a souped-up version of some night vision device, on to a platform circling over the suspect territory. Ramon made earth observations with a cluster of instruments, called by NASA a "multi-spectral telescope." Designed to survey the air quality over the deserts of the Middle East, his "telescope" was built by a research team at Tel Aviv University and a U.S. company, Orbital Sciences Corp. His research project was called MEIDEX (Mediterranean-Israel dust experiment).
According to Israel Line magazine, MEIDEX "called for Ramon to observe and take pictures of atmospheric aerosols in the Mediterranean area using ultraviolet, visible and near-infrared array-detector cameras." The acronym seems disingenuous because the letters ME are usually employed by Israeli research projects to stand for "Middle East."
The computer-controlled cameras were pointed earthward to detect desert dust and "pollution aerosols . . . to provide scientific information about atmospheric aerosols and the influence of global changes on the climate." The data was directly transmitted to Tel Aviv University and, according to investigative journalist Gordon Thomas, on to the Israeli Biological Institute, the hub of Israel's nerve-gas and bioweapons programs.
During the search for Columbia debris County Sheriff Thomas Kerss told reporters about the danger posed by radioactive equipment from the shuttle. NASA repeatedly warned of hazardous substances without disclosing any specifics.
Ben-Gurion University's nuclear physics department has produced an exotic type of fissionable fuel called americium-242. According to a university news release, americium-242 "requires only 1 percent of the mass of uranium or plutonium to reach its critical state. It was found that this fuel could sustain fission in the form of extremely thin films of these elements, less than a thousandth of a millimeter thick. In this form, the exceedingly high-energy, high-temperature fission products can escape the fuel elements and be used for propulsion in space - either by heating a gas for propulsion, or by fueling a special generator that produces electricity."
A more immediate application of this new kind of nuclear fuel is to provide the kick for space-based weapons, including laser cannons and electromagnetic pulse weapons. Watch that Ilan Ramon and Commander William McCool were both specialists in electromagnetic warfare...
Space weaponry mounted on orbiting platforms, however, is illegal under several United Nations treaties; international law is the major obstacle to their deployment. Therefore, the anti-missile missiles developed by the U.S. and Israeli militaries serve as a convenient ploy to sell the National Missile Defense program to a technology-illiterate public. The Arrow and Patriot series are hopelessly clumsy ground-based technologies.
Ilan Ramon's telescope was "multi-spectral." This is an interesting word because it could refer to either the electromagnetic spectrum or ghostly apparitions. Taking a cue from Derrida's "Specters," the mission may have been haunted, though not in the way those of apocalyptic mindset have linked the Columbia's destruction to the over-flight town of Palestine, Texas.
Naomi Elliman, in her article "Israel in Space" posted on the Israeli Ministry of Finance website, disclosed "Ramon also investigated sprites."[8] Sprites and Ramon! His was a fascination resembling Nabokov's obsession with butterflies. Sprites, like butterflies, fly but they are traditionally classified as UFOs or as avenging angels. These spectral lights composed of ionized plasma (gas atoms stripped of electrons) are, Elliman explains, "rare forms of lightning that occur above thunderstorms at heights of up to 90 kilometers," or 55 miles above sea level.
Did the negative charge of a high-energy electron pulse from the americium-242 attract the positive charge of the gas plasma?
- The crew of STS-114 are displayed in two areas. A sign for a "double-feature"?
STS-114 Crew:
Around the (devasted?) Earth you can read these names:
Commander Eileen Collins
Pilot James Kelly
Mission Specialist Charles Camarda
Mission Specialist Wendy Lawrence
In the blue, connecting band we can read the other names:
Mission Specialist Soichi Noguchi
Mission Specialist Steve Robinson
Mission Specialist Andy Thomas
Definitely two "Missions". The "blue" one could be connected to the ISS, while the "black" mission could be on the Shuttle itself? Camarda is a "tiles-specialist", Lawrence is U.S. Naval Academy, ocean-engineer...
- Last but not least, the star-sign of the COLUMBA (The DOVE in Latin) is displayed again. Only for "honoring the memory" of the STS-107 crew? Or for "celebrating" Semiramis, the one with the hanging gardens in Mesopotamia, the twig-bearer, later replaced by the ROMAN EMPIRE as VENUS COLUMBA? It's as well Noah's Dove. The Dove always have been a symbol for man's SOUL. Astarte, Cybele, Isis, Venus, Juno, Aphrodite were the names of the "wise women" who opened the pathways to the "lower worlds" maintaining WISDOM and ORDER. This Dove could be seen "crucified" on the "big wheel" - a forerunner of the Christ-mythos.
We could even go deeper into Mythology - as e.g. the meaning of "Raphael" as an Arch-Angel - but I think I gave you some hints for further examinations on your own...
