Operation Dark Dune
The Space Shuttle Endeavor sat bathed in glowing light on Launch Pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. It was an awesome sight as the vehicle was silhouetted against the dark sky over the seaside complex. But for the nesting sea turtles and their newly hatched babies it was a welcome septical. These turtles emerge from the ocean along the pristine beach during their summer nesting season. The location is within 200 yards of the space shuttle launch pads. Because of the light emanating from the pads, the adults are deterred from coming ashore to lay their eggs and the hatchlings become disoriented as they emerge from their nests and head toward the moonlit sea. One of the goals of the space center’s environmental management systems is to minimize controllable impacts to wildlife, including the nesting sea turtles. This program aids in keeping the balance with its natural surroundings.
The dunes along Florida’s Space Coast would normally provide a necessary buffer. But the dunes have been severely eroded by hurricanes, in some spots, particularly during the 2004 season. The Space Center was impacted by two hurricanes during that year and they were only three weeks apart.
Some stop-gap measures were needed until the nesting season ended in November. Some of the dune restoration was completed and there were plans for more, however, a novel idea came to light. Block the launch pad lights so the nesting process could continue undisturbed with whatever was available. As people debated how they could shield the beach from lights, Doug Scheidt with Kennedy’s life sciences support contractor Dynamic came up with an idea. “Boxcars are about the right height’, he said.
Shading the dunes in the most severely eroded spots was a “shot in the dark” that might work. The unique situation of having a rail line that parallels the beach using the freight train case was a viable solution. This would avoid having the require permits and funding.
The railroad idea brought together employees from both the operations and environmental sides of the space center’s management team. Because the cars were big enough and mobile and those scheduled for removal from service were close at hand, the solution would be easy, quick and cheap. 25 railroad cars were strategically placed on the rail line in the temporary seaside location.
Even at the space program’s roots there has been a relationship between space exploration and nature. Kurt H. Debus, Kennedy Space Center’s first director arranged for a large portion of the center to be designated as a wildlife refuge. Encompassing 140,000 acres, the Merritt Island Wildlife Refuge is managed by the Interior Department’s Fish and Wildlife Service.
This entry was posted on Monday, November 26th, 2007 at 11:07 pm and is filed under Mission History, Space Agency News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
