Discovery's Dangling Gapfiller Removed by Hand

Cyclotron_Boy writes "According to the New Scientist and NASA TV, Discovery's gap-fillers were removed successfully by hand by astronaut Steve Robinson earlier today during the eva. They didn't even have to use the forceps or the makeshift hacksaw-blade tool."

Comments

Re:Gap Filler

[Nytewynd]

The idea was that this dangling material might focus heat onto those surrounding tiles like a blowtorch on re-entry. Intead of the heat being evenly distributed over the entire surface, that area might get super-hot and burn up the shuttle.

The fabric is to prevent the tiles from banging together on lift-off. From the gist of the article, it sounds like it doesn't matter for re-entry. I guess they'll find out the exciting way when they try to land.

Re:Gap Fillers

[xpird]

According to the article they are made of ceramic-coated fabric and serve as buffers so the tiles do not rattle together and get damaged. I would imagine that during liftoff the ride is a little bumpy. The article also says that the only reason they are doing this is they think that they may cause added heat due to friction during re-entry.

Re:Alternatives to tile?

[Rei]

Rather than using tiles wouldn't it be better to use some sort of spray adhesive

The tiles are heat radiators, not adhesives. Perhaps you meant the filler? It's not an adhesive either. There has to be gaps between the tiles (because the skin and tiles don't have the same thermal expansion coefficient), but gaps can pose problems (they increase the likelyhood of tiles falling out, for one; they also tend to channel in extra heat during reentry). The fillers deal with both of these issues.

What actually attaches the tiles to the skin isn't the filler, or even an adhesive - it is a felt strain isolation pad. A simple adhesive would come loose under thermal expansion. The tiles are attached to the pad, which is in turn attached to the skin.