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Global Positioning Satellite Technology Assists in Recovery of Space Shuttle Columbia Wreckage

June 23, 2003 - Unexpected Tragedy.On 1 February 2003, the Space Shuttle Columbia (STS-107), due to land after a 16-day mission orbiting the Earth, broke up soon after re-entering the Earth's atmosphere killing all seven crew members on board. Tragically, instead of a routine landing at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, shuttle debris was scattered across East Texas and West Louisiana. As the world mourned, NASA immediately launched a comprehensive search for wreckage and the remains of the space crew involving hundreds of state troopers, police, rescue workers and recovery teams.

More than 2,000 debris fields were identified, over some 70,000 square kilometers, ranging from the small town of Nacogdoches, located about 170 miles south-east of Dallas, to the Louisiana border. "There is no such thing as an unimportant part,'' Michael Leinbach, shuttle launch director and head of the reconstruction project, told the Houston Chronicle. "It's important that we get every piece back because we don't have a smoking gun right now, and you never know if somebody might step on it and bring it back. It could be the clue we're looking for. We need every piece of Columbia back.''

Lake Toledo Bend Reservoir. Located along Columbia's path of re-entry, on the border of Texas and Louisiana, is the Lake Toledo Bend Reservoir (site of the old Sabine River). Trajectories from GPS mapping of the Shuttle's path suggested the possibility that pieces of debris may have ended up in the waters of the reservoir.

As the prime contractor to the U.S. Naval Sea Systems Command's Office of the Supervisor of Salvage & Diving (SUPSALV), Phoenix International, Inc. (Phoenix), a marine services company specializing in complex underwater operations on a worldwide basis was selected to participate in operations to locate, recover, and map debris from Space Shuttle Columbia that may have fallen in and around Texas waterways. To assist in the underwater search and recovery mission Phoenix contacted C& C Technologies (C&C) of Lafayette, Louisiana, an international surveying and mapping company, known for its expertise in autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) survey services and decimeter worldwide GPS positioning services.

Recovering debris over such a vast area required absolute positioning. To accomplish this, C &C relied on the positioning technology of its strategic partner NavCom Technology, Inc (NavCom), owner and operator of the StarFire differential GPS Network. The StarFire Network is the world's first global satellite based augmentation system capable of real-time decimeter accuracy. NavCom originally developed the global StarFire Network in 1997 for parent company John Deere. Since that time, the StarFire Network has not only expanded its global reach through a strategic alliance with NASA/JPL, but it has also expanded its user base in a number of diverse applications and markets. Because it is not reliant on local reference stations, it is far superior to ground-based augmentation systems in its ability to serve the marine market. Through a strategic partnership agreement signed in September 2001 with NavCom, C&C Technologies began offering NavCom's StarFire Network capabilities and dual frequency receivers through its C-Nav GcGPS (Globally-corrected GPS) positioning service to the offshore exploration and marine markets. The concept of GPS positioning providing worldwide horizontal accuracy on the order of 0.1 meter is a totally new concept for the marine industry.

C& C research vessels, equipped with C-Nav positioning receivers, set out to map the bottom of the Lake Toledo Bend Reservoir with visualization tools. The crews on three small research vessels used bow-mounted side-scan sonars, multibeam sonars; and 360 degree scanning sonar underwater search systems to search and image the reservoir bottom. Through the positioning accuracy provided by C-Nav, detailed images were logged and C-Nav used to geo-reference shuttle debris. This aided in the creation of a database to catalog the precise location of every item. Dive Teams consisting of the U.S. Navy Mobile Diving & Salvage Unit 2 of Norfolk, Virginia, EPA, Galveston Police Department, Sabine County Sheriffs Department, Houston Police Department, and the Texas Department of Public Safety were sent down to recover identified objects. "Coupling the images created by the visualization tools with the known position accuracy provided by The StarFire Network allowed the dive teams to expeditiously cover the objectives set forth by the US Navy," said Business Development Manager of C&C Dan Galligan.

The preliminary search area was 28 square miles. The completed area surveyed was 16 square miles at an average depth of 38 feet of water. In addition to the challenge of locating debris, some being minuscule, both above and below the water's surface, a variety of natural and man made obstacles such as murky and tree-laden water were an added complication to the operations. Mike Dupuis, C & C's assistant general manager, described the Toledo Bend area recovery efforts as one of the "most demanding projects C&C has ever been involved with in terms of obstacles, weather conditions, sub-surface and surface conditions."

Project Results. "The recovery project was an excellent collaboration of workforce and advanced survey tools such as collection and processing of software, computer aided graphics software, and sonar hardware," said Galligan. "Despite the demands of working 12-14 hours, 7 days a week for two months, the crew, inspired by the important job at hand, was tireless and professional. The C&C survey crews and their equipment performed flawlessly and exceeded everyone's expectations." The investigative search and recovery team was able to image the reservoir bottom, record precise locations of identified targets and accurately guide divers to recover them utilizing a combination of multibeam bathymetry, sonar imagery and the precise positioning of differential GPS. The repeatability and accuracy of the C-Nav system was phenomenal, and Phoenix International and the U.S. Navy were impressed with the results.

Although all of the pieces of the destroyed space shuttle may never be found, this important and difficult search effort, made possible with a wide variety of technology including state-of-the-art positioning, was critical to NASA's investigation. The very detailed survey of the Toledo Bend Reservoir helps insure the retrieval of all clues in the shuttle disaster, thus speeding the recovery of the US space shuttle program.

Contact: info@cctechnol.com