Gunderboom

The City of Ocean Springs will soon be home to a BP pilot booming program. Ocean Springs Mayor Connie Moran met with BP officials at the Department of Marine Resources headquarters Sunday morning.

After many meetings with BP, Mayor Moran said she now feels the city is on track to achieving its goal of preparedness.

"We made a presentation again Sunday for the ocean boom called Gunder Boom, proposing a stretch that would go from East Deer Island all the way to Marsh Point near East Beach," said Mayor Moran.

Because of that presentation, BP has agreed to fund a pilot program for a section of the boom.

Too bad Louisiana hasn’t tried to use Gunder Boom.  It looks like a great way to keep oil and tarballs out.

Here’s a website with drawings showing how the boom works

http://www.gunderboom.com/

 

Michoud's past, present and future

From spaceref dot com (http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewnews.rss.html?id=1410), a great article about where I work.

NASA's Last Two Space Shuttle External Tanks Are Being Built at Michoud

Ken Kremer
Wednesday, June 30, 2010 -

Ken Kremer for NASA Watch , NASA Michoud Assembly Facility, LA

The last two Space Shuttle External Tanks (ET's) likely to be produced in history are entering their final closeout assembly operations at the NASA-owned Michoud Assembly Facility (MAF) in New Orleans as the shuttle program draws ever closer to its looming retirement date, now reset to early 2011.

These two final tanks are destined for the last scheduled flight of the shuttle program - STS 134 - and what's currently base lined as the Launch-On-Need (LON) rescue mission (STS 335), respectively. They are designated as tanks ET-138 and ET-122. STS 134 is currently scheduled to lift off on Feb. 28, 2011.

I had the rare opportunity to inspect these final ET's up close during my tour of NASA's new Lunar Orion Ground Test Article (GTA). Read my Orion reports here and here.

The giant tanks play a dual role. First, they supply the super cold cryogenic propellants - liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen - to fuel the Orbiters three main engines during the thunderous ascent to orbit. Second, they provide the structural backbone to the shuttle system by absorbing most of the seven million pounds of thrust exerted by the solid rocket boosters and main engines.

The tank work is taking place amidst great uncertainty for all the aerospace workers employed on the Space Shuttle Program at Michoud and at all other NASA and shuttle contractor locations across the US.

Massive job cuts in the tens of thousands are set to occur as the Shuttle program is ended and as the termination of NASA's follow on Constellation moon program, which would have employed some of these folks, was recently accelerated by the Obama Administration. Indeed many thousands of shuttle contractor workers have already been layed off.

Until recently, Michoud was a beehive humming with construction activity for our nation's space program. Now it's almost like a ghost town, sadly foreshadowing the coming demise of the shuttle program as the ET manufacturing lines have been shut down. More than 1000 layoffs have already taken place at Michoud even as the US remains in the grip of the worst economic recession since the Depression.

ET manufacturing is the main activity at Michoud and the facility was one of the largest industrial employers in the New Orleans area, now further battered by the economically devastating effects of the BP Gulf oil spill.

Lockheed Martin Space Systems manufactures the huge ET's at Michoud under a contract from NASA that was awarded in 1973. These last tanks are being assembled under a contract that extends through 2010. To date, three test tanks and 132 flight tanks have been delivered to NASA.

"We are down to about 1200 employees from a total of about 2200 working at Michoud. And, we are on a rapid decline," Lockheed spokesman Kevin Barre told me. "Layoffs started about one year ago. There is still no direction from NASA on the future of the facility. The ET weld tools are now covered and in storage. They belong to NASA".

Most of the current tank work is focused on ET-138, with three shifts working diligently around the clock in the Test & Checkout Building, # 420. Test & Checkout is the final stop for an ET during build before being rolled out to the shipping barge to KSC.

During my visit, expert teams of highly experienced and dedicated personnel were busily working on the umbilical connections, foam modifications, feed lines, ice frost ramps, electrical lines and much more as I stood in awe on top of the wraparound scaffolding, just inches from the giant yellow tank positioned hoizontally on the shop floor and which stretches 154 feet in length and 27.6 feet in diameter and a mere one half inch thick.

See my ET-138 photos below and 360 degree panoramas courtesy of Nasatech.net: http://nasatech.net/

I was lucky to stride back and forth along the tank where very few folks are permitted, from the nose cap of the tank to the rear and also gaze straight at the two complex and rectangular shaped umbilical plate assemblies containing the critical oxygen and hydrogen feed lines which are coupled directly to the rear of the orbiter during launch.

Panorama from bottom of ET-138 near umbilical plate assemblies

Panorama near top of ET-138 next to fuel feed lines

Lockheed is targeting to complete ET-138 around June 29. ET-138 will then be transported about one mile to the sites deep-water access port and placed aboard a barge named Pegasus.

A delivery celebration of sorts is planned for July 8, although for many of those fortunate to still be employed it may harken to a somber funeral procession.

"There will be a New Orleans second line with a jazz band following the tank to the barge!," according to Lockheed spokesman Kevin Barre.

The "Second line" is a "quintessential New Orleans art form -- a jazz funeral without a body". Second line is a New Orleans tradition where participants follow the brass band and enjoy the music with a parade of traditional dance and twirling parasols and handkerchiefs.

The tanks are then towed on the barge for a 900 mile voyage across the Gulf of Mexico, around Florida and up to the Kennedy Space Center on a trip lasting five or six days. NASA officials are in the process of determining whether the catastrophic BP oil leak in the Gulf will affect the timing or the route of the barge. There were some minor adjustments to the path of the barge on the prior ET shipment.

These tanks are the newest version dubbed the Super Lightweight Tank (SLWT), weighing some 58,500 pounds. They are 7,500 pounds lighter than the prior Lightweight Tanks (LWT) because of the use of a significantly stronger and less dense aluminum lithium alloy.

The weight savings with the SLWT translates directly pound for pound to an increase in the shuttle's payload capacity to orbit and was vital for enabling the shuttle to loft the heavier components required to build and supply the International Space Station. The first SLWT lifted off on 2 June 1998, powering STS 91 into orbit.

The Michoud facility sits on an 832 acre property in eastern New Orleans. It features one of the largest manufacturing plants in the world, encompassing over 43 acres under one roof and a deep water access port which is a necessity for the transportation of large space structures via ocean-going barge.

Everyone I spoke with at Michoud wished the program would continue but sadly realizes that it won't. They are uniformly proud of their accomplishments and their role in supporting the US Space Program.

The ET teams motto is "The Last One will be the Best One !"

They are a highly dedicated lot. Half the folks at Michoud lost their homes during Hurricane Katrina and pushed on with the work despite the terrible aftermath and kept the shuttle program running on schedule.

One employee said to me, "In addition to aerospace workers, there are a whole lot of regular working folks from the community who contribute to the program, in many different ways. I'm always amazed at what a great job local, family-owned contractors are capable of when becoming involved with our space programs."

"It helps to put into perspective where the funding for these programs really goes. I get the impression some times that the public has the idea that billions of dollars are actually loaded into a rocket and blasted into space, never to be seen again. They don't seem to notice the regular folks, like steel workers, carpenters, electricians and pipe fitters, their suppliers and equipment vendors, who all participate in and benefit from these kinds of programs. They are all very much part of the space program too, although if you're up to your elbows in a mud pit, you probably don't feel much like an astronaut."

NASA has done studies on what it would take in terms of time and money to restart the ET production line, but that study has not been released to the public.

Senior NASA shuttle managers have told me that it would take roughly 2 years from the date the order was placed to produce the first new tank. In the meantime, there are numerous "piece parts" for one to two tanks currently sitting on the floor at the facility which could be assembled together and which I personally saw.

NASA and Lockheed are also working together at Michoud to repair ET-122 which was heavily damaged during Hurricane Katrina.

Watch for my upcoming feature on observing the restoration of ET-122.

ET-122 will be stacked for the contingency mission STS 335 along with Orbiter Atlantis and the last SRB's which recently arrived at KSC in late May. Read my features on the last SRB's and Atlantis last flight and tribute here:

http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewnews.html?id=1399

http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewnews.html?id=1395

Obamath

President Barack Obama on Saturday announced about $2 billion in new investments to help build clean energy technology and create thousands of jobs.

In his weekly address, Obama said that the Department of Energy is slated to award nearly $2 billion in conditional commitments to two solar companies: Abengoa Solar and Abound Solar Manufacturing.

The construction will create about 1,600 jobs in Arizona and more than 70 percent of the components and products used in construction will be manufactured in the United States “boosting jobs and communities in states up and down the supply chain,” Obama said.   Abound Solar Manufacturing will manufacture advanced solar panels at two new plants in Colorado and Indiana, creating more than 2,000 construction jobs and 1,500 permanent jobs.

 

The drilling moratorium in the Gulf  equates to the loss of 37,000 jobs.  Solar panels are made from petroleum products.  So what the prez is doing is swapping 37,000 jobs for ~3,300 permanent  jobs.  What’s wrong with this picture?

 

Corps of Engineers take a holiday

Oil too close to home

Shrimp boat sits idle at Rigolets marina. #oilspill sheen and... on Twitpic

Oil Advances Into Lake Pontchartrain

Oil Advances Into Lake Pontchartrain

nunguesser calls out coast guard

Plaquemines Parish president Billy Nungesser venting to WWL radio. Coast Guard/BP conspiracy going on....I believe it.

Reporting on the oilspill

Well written article about the oilspill from someone who doesn't live here.

It'll make you sad, but worth the read.

Excerpt:

It's all being driven by money and fear. That's what had made the out-of-uniform cop in the oil port of Fourchon, on the edge of the marsh, erupt from his police car and scream that if I didn't leave now he would arrest me for trespassing ... for driving on a public road toward the shoreline.

That's what made everyone keep subdividing, compartmentalizing, seeing only his link.

That's what made the oil company try to hide the carnage and send the oil underwater.

That's what made all the marsh dwellers scream about the moratorium on deepwater drilling, even though that was the very thing that had just shattered their way of life.

That's what kept their leaders from doing what they knew must be done, and their countrymen from demanding it: the conversion to energy that didn't poison the water or land or keep us mired in expensive wars when the national bank was broke.

BP's Texas City Chemical Release

From Propublica dot org, an article about
a BP-owned Texas City Refinery released thousands of pounds of toxic chemicals into the air because of BP's decision to keep producing gasoline while they repaired faulty equipment that caused the leaks.

"The company now estimates that 538,000 pounds of chemicals escaped from the refinery while it was replacing the equipment. These included 17,000 pounds of benzene, a known carcinogen; 37,000 pounds of nitrogen oxides, which contribute to respiratory problems; and 186,000 pounds of carbon monoxide."

Their blatant disregard for the environment and human beings is painfully stunning to me.

Findings on White House's response to the Oil Spill

Here's a link to a just published report on the White House Public Relations Campaign on the Oil Spill. The report was done by U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

An excerpt:
Findings
Committee staff has discovered the following based upon witness interviews and
documents provided by federal and state entities:
• Officials on the ground dispute key White House assertions about the number and
timeliness of assets deployed in the Gulf. Local officials describe White House
outreach efforts as more focused on stopping bad press than on addressing the
disaster at hand;

• The White House’s assurances that there are adequate resources are at odds with the
reality on the ground, where those on the frontline of the spill express significant
frustration over the lack of assets. Local complaints are supported by the fact that the White House waited until Day 70 of the oil spill to accept critical offers of
international assistance. Local workers and boats could have been assisting more
with the clean-up if the Federal government had provided them with needed supplies
and equipment;

• While the White House has tried to use the delay in finding a visible leak to explain its early silence on the oil spill, Transocean officials and Coast Guard documents from the scene of the oil spill reveal clear and early indications of a substantial oil leak days earlier than White House accounts;

• The failure of Administration officials to quickly waive laws preventing necessary
foreign assets from reaching the Gulf and other regulations are hampering efforts to
clean-up and limit damage from the oil spill. Local officials feel the federal
government is making the perfect the enemy of the good in cleanup efforts;

• Local officials strongly dispute President Obama’s insistence that the federal
government – and not BP – has been in control since day one. One Coast Guard
Admiral told congressional investigators that decisions on the ground are made
through a “consensus-based” process with BP. In practice, the Federal Government is
not in charge of oil spill response efforts through a command-and-control approach;

• Local officials strongly believe the President’s call for a drilling moratorium will significantly compound the economic damage caused by the oil spill and will actually increase risk associated with future offshore drilling projects.

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