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Astronauts To Repair Shuttle Tiles With Foam Brush
lhouk281 writes "Repairing the space shuttle's heat shield on the fly might be easier than originally thought, thanks to a basic, inexpensive item in any painter's tool box -- the foam brush. The brush, which costs less than $1 at most hardware stores, was described by NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe as the perfect instrument for applying two compounds that together form a Super Glue-like substance to patch potential holes in the shuttle's heat-resistant tiles."
Sounds good and all, but my skeptical side is about to come out again. Are we really going to go with the cheap $1.00 solution? I'm guessing NASA (or some other agency) will spend about $2.5 million on testing to make sure all the components of the brush are safe, will withstand radiation in space, won't react with the glue or the tiles, etc. Then all of a sudden we're up to $200 brushes (which are really exactly the same as the painter's brushes). Don't get me wrong...I like the fact we found a nice cheap solution and can repair on the fly (theoretically), but we know how the government is...
"He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lampposts...for support rather than illumination." - Andrew Lang
Two things:
1) It was Columbia, not Challenger; both tragedies, of course, were due to the bureaucrats not listening to the people that actually understood what they were doing. Very, very bad.
2) The problem with the foam was the velocity, not the composition of the material. This foam looks to be quite useful, although I'm a bit skeptical about outgassing rendering the foam useless before it can even be applied. And yes, I know it was a joke.
Does the fix also involve an inanimate carbon rod?
So, are we going to see shuttles who's primary color is "primer" and "Bondo"?
Shuttles with one wheel that is the mini-spare, for years?
Shuttles with plastic over one window?
Hmmm.
Could be worse.
We could see shuttles with spoilers, glo-lights, ThunderThump3000 stereos, and "R-Type" stickers...
www.eFax.com are spammers
NASA employs many smart engineers...surely they can come up with a more expensive solution!
In the Star Trek evil Mirror Universe, virtuoso cellist Yo-Yo Ma is gangsta hiphop star DJ Yo Ma-Ma.
Knowing how I get goop all over the place whenever I use some, I can envision the fuzzy photos of the astronaut crazy-glued to the bottom of the wing as the shuttle re-enters the atmosphere.
I hope this foam brush thing works, but I also hope that they don't have to use it in LEO as an emergency repair. I really, really hope that what happened with Columbia was just extremely unlucky, and not business as usual with the shuttles.
I think the interesting this is other countries are starting to enter the space race. I hope someone plans a manned Mars mission or something, anything, to really spark some interest. Oh I know, manned spaceflight is too risky, not needed, blah blah. Yeah well, guess what, humans inevitably die. I'm sure that, given the choice, many humans would rather die pushing the boundaries of exploration and discovery than dying safely on earth in their beds.
Earth isn't going to be here forever. The more we learn about surviving places other than on Earth, the better chance we have of outliving this little blue dot we call home.
I think my sig fits in nicely here.
"To confine our attention to terrestrial matters would be to limit the human spirit." -Stephen Hawking
So they'll also have to bring with them a $1 water mister if they're going to use household Super Glue
And on the sunny side of the Space Shuttle the water will boil away before it hits the glue. And on the dark side of the Space Shuttle the water will freeze before it hits the glue.
The compound is probably akin to a two part epoxy -- epoxy (the glue) and resin (the hardener). Another option would be a UV curing glue. (1) Apply on the dark side of the Shuttle, (2) rotate Shuttle into sunlight, (3) watch glue cure, (4) profit!!!
If you built something that the human could survive inside to withstand the stresses, congratulations, you've just rebuilt the shuttle.
Hardly.
How about a soyuz return capsule.
Or even a 60's era MOOSE.
It's only a metric ton of heat when you've got 50 tons of orbiter smacking into the atmosphere. There's a lot less excess energy to bleed off when it's 1 man+250kg. Still, *I* wouldn't want to try personal orbital re-entry until every other option was exhausted.
You are in a twisty maze of processor lines, all alike.
There is a lot of hype here.
I don't know how flexible a thin sheet of carbon fibre composite would be. But, if necessary, the patches could be preshaped with roughly the U profile needed to go around the leading edge.