Slashdot Mirror
Space Shuttle to Receive Emegency Repairs
Tycow writes "The BBC are reporting that
Discovery needs emergency repairs - dangling material has been spotted on the belly of the shuttle, and NASA are worried they could cause overheating on re-entry. 'Nasa is concerned the dangling material - called gap fillers - could cause part of the shuttle to overheat as it re-enters the atmosphere.The type of repairs being planned have never been conducted by astronauts on a spacewalk before.'"
No it won't burn away, the cloth is ceramic-coated with the same material as the thermal tiles on the orberter belly; they can withstand thousands of degrees farenheit. The protrusions will break away some, but in past landings, they have measured protrusions of at least one half inch AFTER the craft has landed and the protusion was manipulated by the landing. There was no way to know how big the protrusions were prior to landing because they couldn't examine the craft to the level of detail they can post-Columbia.
Spaceflight Now | STS-114 Shuttle Report | Shuttle mission extended to give bonus day at station
Spaceflight Now | STS-114 Shuttle Report | NASA gives go-ahead to spacewalk repair work
(and the headline says "Emegency" -- someone fix that, please)
i am a soviet space shuttle
(Sorry I pressed the wrong reply button the first time i posted this response) No it won't burn away, the cloth is ceramic-coated with the same material as the thermal tiles on the orberter belly; they can withstand thousands of degrees farenheit. The protrusions will break away some, but in past landings, they have measured protrusions of at least one half inch AFTER the craft has landed and the protusion was manipulated by the landing approach. There was no way to know how big the protrusions were prior to landing because they couldn't examine the craft to the level of detail they can post-Columbia.
The 'new' foam is only used on acreage foam. The hand sprayed/sculpted foam (which killed Columbia and produced the big scary chunk after SRB sep on the current flight) is still the old freon blown foam. This is very plainly spelled out in the CAIB report and recent NASA press releases.
This story is completely contradicted by the CAIB report - furthermore this graph/image plainly shows that NASA *has* been making progress in reducing foam shedding/tile damage caused by the 1998 switch to 'enviromentally friendly foam'.I spoke with a guy from the Mission Management Team (MMT) tonight here in Cape Canaveral. He confirmed that such small pieces of gap filler are not expected to affect the creation of the barrier layer during re-entry, and so do not pose a threat to the orbiter.
The real reason for this 'repair' is because this whole mission is to "test orbiter repair techniques" - and these virtually irrelevant pieces of gap filler provide an unexpected, but very fortunate opportunity to try a real repair technique out in a relatively safe and controlled fashion.
NASA doesn't yet know if it's even possible to have an astronaut perform repair-type work on the underbelly of the orbiter - they think it would be possible, but they have no hard data to say it can be done.
But these small bits sticking out give them the perfect excuse to go test it and get some real-world experience on the issue.
If it looks like the astronaut might damage some of the Thermal Protection System tiles down there, they'll just terminate the repair attempt and fly home as-is. If not, they'll demonstrate that astronauts can go under an orbiter and perform repair tasks down there safely and without harming the TPS.
But I'll bet you'll hear the popular press making too much out of this as usual...
Of course, the fanatical believers
Ad hominem
in manned space flight would never even consider that this shows the monstrous demerits and grotesque waste
Our species is trying to figure out how to do this. It's hard. It takes time and costs lives and great treasure. Fifty years from now some nameless mech will be strapped to the side of a cracked hull trying to patch a hole with a Shuttle derived glue gun.
Take the long view. It's easier on the blood pressure.
of manned flight versus unmanned.
There is no versus. Cassini is filling basements full of storage devices with Saturn and its moons. Deep Impact's primary objective was fulfilled only one month ago. In 2003, WMAP (and COBE before it) nailed the age of the universe to within a couple hundred million years. CLOVER and the Planck Surveyor will improve on this. Gravity Probe B is concluding its mission in August. NOAA-N launched in May. Spitzer (2003) and Chandra (1999) are both functioning well. Here is a page full of on-going unmanned missions you probably can't even identify.
GOES-N launches in 3 days. Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is launching in 6 days. CALIPSO goes up next month. STEREO, ST5, GOES-O, AIM, THEMIS, Pluto New Horizons and Dawn are all launching in 2006. Phoenix launches in 2007.
There is no verses. We do BOTH. We have the means and we're using it, regardless of what fools like you think you know.
Lurking at the bottom of the gravity well, getting old