The Eyes of the Space Shuttle

Roland Piquepaille writes "Now that Discovery astronaut Steve Robinson has successfully removed two pieces of fabric poking out of the shuttle's heat shield, a question remains: how did NASA discover these anomalies in the first place? In this article, Forbes.com writes that NASA can say thank you to a private Canadian company, Neptec, and its Laser Camera system (LCS). Neptec is working with NASA for ten years now, but it was the first time that its vision technology was used for external damage assessment of a shuttle. As NASA says it may cancel some future shuttle flights, Neptec plans to implement its 3-D imaging technology in military situations and on the battlefield. But read more for other details, references and pictures about this imaging technology."

Comments

New issue to fix just found - kudos to the cameras

[Rei]

They keep finding things, though. Here's the latest.

Amazing how NASA turned into "Paranoid Scientists Incorporated" since Columbia...

And Neptec's RTOS of choice?

[Kilkonie]

Neptec's vision system is running QNX's Neutrino RTOS.

QNX(R) Neutrino(R) RTOS is powering the Neptec Laser Camera System (LCS) for NASA's Return to Flight mission. Designed and built by Neptec, a developer of space vision systems, the LCS will play a key role in ensuring the safety of this mission, the first since the Columbia disaster in 2003. This mission is scheduled for takeoff Wednesday, July 13, from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida.

The crew of the space shuttle Discovery will use Neptec's LCS to inspect the exterior of the shuttle during the 12-day flight. The LCS, which will be attached to a boom at the end of the shuttle's Canadarm, uses a scanning mechanism to generate three-dimensional maps of the shuttle's exterior surface in real time. During the mission, NASA will use the generated images to identify even the smallest amount of damage to the outside of the spacecraft.

Neptec has also used QNX RTOS technology in earlier devices it developed for NASA, including the QNX-based Advanced Space Vision System (ASVS), which helped guide the Canadarm in previous shuttle missions as well as on the International Space Station." The LCS is a critical element of NASA's Return to Flight mission and we have to be sure it is running on the most reliable operating system available," said Iain Christie, vice president of research and development at Neptec. "Selecting the QNX Neutrino RTOS was an easy decision because we already know that the system can handle the extreme conditions found in space and that it meets our demands for ultra-reliability. We will continue to use QNX technology in all of our real time embedded projects."

Full Article
Older QNX PR Piece

X-15 -- do not extend landing gear above Mach 5

[Latent Heat]

Milton Thompson in Edge of Space relates the bugs introduced by modifying the X-15 into the model with the extra drop fuel tanks.

They crumped an X-15 with a hard landing during a rocket-failed-to-light landing emergency -- this accident caused serious back injury to pilot Jack MacKay leading to long-term health problems. While the pilot was able to recover to return to flying the X-15, the powers that be decided to rebuild that X-15 with extra fuel tanks.

When they tested that X-15 in high-speed flight, the front landing gear popped out at speed, the tire burnt up, and they had a rough landing on the melted tire. They figured that the rebuilt aircraft was longer and there was no longer enough slack on the landing gear deploy cable so that when the X-15 heated up from high Mach flight, the cable stretched and popped the gear out. Mind you the deployment system for the gear was no more complex than the brake cable on a bicycle because they wanted this to be ultra rugged and reliable because they had not second chances putting the wheels down on an unpowered landing (the Shuttle adopted the X-15 style landing).

So they lengthened the cable to the point where there was almost too much slack to yank on the T handle and get the gear down, but the next time they flew, the wheel popped out again during high Mach flight.

One of the pilots suggested putting one of these "placards" in the X-15 cockpit saying "Do not deploy gear above Mach 5."

The Shuttle has a lot of the characteristics of a research rather than a production aircraft. Don't think there is anything intrinsically bad with it apart from what they are trying to get out of it (production space flight).

Re:What I really wonder is - MOD PARENT UP

[erbmjw]

He's correct about the change in spray on the foam - and that the old spray worked much better. I can't confirm if the change in spray was because of environmental reasons. I would advocate that NASA re-consider their decision on the old spray. I would even suggest that if the reason for no longer using the old spray was EPA related that NASA take the fight public; release all the pertinent data and see how many people would advocate an EPA exemption for the shuttle flights. Oh and for those of you who are now considering a reply that "erbmjw hates the environment" 1) I have been involved with numerous environmental causes in various roles. 2) There are some of us within the environmental movement that can understand the need for rare but extraordinarily useful exemptions. 3) I asked that NASA release all pertinent data!