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Space Shuttle Heading Home
Reuters is reporting that the shuttle has been prepping for a return to Earth, stowing gear and checking systems. Their expected return is tomorrow morning, around 9am EDT. From the article: "During tests on Sunday a leaking power unit for the shuttle flight control system appeared to be in good enough shape for landing and the jets that steer the spacecraft worked fine, NASA engineers said. The shuttle crew was still awaiting word on whether Discovery's heat shield had passed a final inspection performed on Saturday, but scans conducted with cameras and sensors throughout the flight had so far turned up no damage."
SpaceFlightNow has a detailed timeline of the re-entry - not sure if it will still be dark enough to capture a glow across the Western US with the 9:14AM EDT first landing time ... but my guess is a LOT more camera's will be watching it come back into the atmosphere.
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You think they spent 12 days in space just looking at the thermal tiles? I know the main reason for the mission was to transfer supplies and a man to the ISS. Probably lots of other experiments as well. Unfortunately the news doesn't report on the mundane, just the dramatic, so you only hear about the possible problems with the tiles.
Yes, that's the impression you get from the news coverage, but there are many goals of the mission you could read about on the Wikipedia entry. I've linked to a specific revision so you won't have to worry about coming across a vandalized version.
I'll save you the trouble of clicking on it. Equipment delivered to the ISS:
1 new astronaut on board the ISS, Thomas Reitner from the European Space Agency, to stay with the current crew for six months.
80 C Freezer: This freezer is known as the Minus Eighty Degree Laboratory Freezer for ISS (MELFI). The French-built unit comprises four independent drawers which can be set to operate at different temperatures (image). Initially, temperatures of 80 C, 26 C, and +4 C will be used during on-orbit ISS operations. Both reagents and samples will be stored in the freezer. As well as storage, the freezer is designed to be used to transport samples to and from the ISS in a temperature controlled environment. The total capacity of the unit is 300 liters.
The European Modular Cultivation System (EMCS) for biological experiments. This consists of a gas tight incubator in which there are two centrifuges, each able to carry four experimental cartridges. Two "Ground controls"--exact copies of the equipment and experiments--will be run on the ground. One will be in Europe and one at NASA's Ames Research Center.
New oxygen generation system. This device is considered a test for an equipment design with potential for use on postulated future long durations to the Moon and Mars. The system will initially run below its maximum capacity, though it is designed for enabling the ISS to support a crew of six in the future. It will supplement the Russian-built Elektron system operating in the Zvezda module.
New cycling machine for the ISS crew. A Danish built device, the Cycle Ergometer with Vibration Isolation System (CEVIS). (They have to exercise or else they'll dramatically lose bone mass due to lack of gravity, of course.)
Replacement common cabin air assembly heat exchanger used to control the internal air temperature of the ISS.
All of the above equipment is to be installed in the Destiny Laboratory Module. Additionally the orbiter and ISS computer printers will be swapped.
If you look at the maps you'll see they're not passing over the western US this time. Here's wishing them the best, even if not may people can see what's happening until the final stages.
I, for one, applaud anyone with the bravery and skill to be a part of the space program. Also, it makes me sad that we never hear about any of the good progress anymore. All we hear is tile this, re-entry that. How about a news story about some of the unique experiments and projects have happened in space, or the international cooperation that goes into building the space station? It's also amazing how the media plays off images from Mars as a trip to the park. Shame on people. This stuff is paving way for the future. When we do screw up this planet for good, there's only one way to go and that's up. I guess since it's not all shiney lights and space babes like Star Trek, no one seems to care.
If most of the mission is making sure that the shuttle they sent up can land safely (at least that's the impression we get from the news coverage)
That's the problem...what the media focuses on and what the purpose of most of the mission is are entirely different things. Sure, many of the goals (and indeed, the highest priority goals) of this particular flight is to help establish on orbit inspection and repair techniques, but there are a lot of other things.
In particular, within NASA I think the most significant part of this mission (besides the tank repairs and the on orbit inspection techniques) is the return of ISS to a three person crew. Even more significant, that third crew member is an European Space Agency astronaut and the orbiter dropped off a major European payload rack (MELFI, which is a giant low temperature freezer).
Unfortunately, that really doesn't come up in the coverage, it's very much geared towards "so, what happened today that could have killed the crew". The spin of "constant danger" the press puts on the mission is what gets people to watch, not the fact that we just dropped off a German guy on the Space Station. The press conferences and coverage are dominated by what is almost excruciatingly detailed discussions of what are in reality very minor problems. It's what gets people to watch.
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Now did/will the shuttle do anything beyond that? Any delivery? Any research? Any discoveries? Anything more than launch, orbit, landing?
They also delivered supplies and performed vital repairs on the ISS. Also they dropped off a third crewman, who will spend the next few months on the station, and tested out a new extension to the shuttle's robot arm, which should make it easier to perform repairs to the underside of the shuttle.
So it was more than just going into space, then landing again.
One of the mission goals was to set up a -80 C freezer on the ISS. We have a couple in our lab (most bio labs do) -- they're primarily used to store biological samples. The -20 C freezer and 4 C refridgerater are also standard operating equipment in biology (or chemistry, I suppose), so it looks like they're gearing up to do some life sciences work.
Now, this brings up an interesting issue -- How do you operate refrigeration equipment in space? Especially that -80 C...it's a real power hog and probably outputs a lot of heat (in a closed air environment, is this a problem?). Does anyone know how cooling is done in space? Is it still based on condenser coils? Can they somehow utilize the "cold" of space for this purpose?
The shuttle can land itself without any hassle whatsoever. What prevents this from being done is the fact that the landing gear is manually activated. This was an intentional design element, as once the landing gear is activated there is no way to reverse the process. The fear was that if the computers fouled up and dropped the landing gear early, the excess drag would cause the shuttle to fall short of the runway. For this reason, they wait until the last minute (approx. 300 feet) to activate the system. As far as I know, the landing gear still requires an actual human to give the command, but the cable they installed allows this to be done remotely if the need should arise.
"So after all this, you make my case for me. To end this stalemate, you must die..."