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NASA Decides No Fix Needed for Endeavor's Tiles
bhmit1 writes "It looks like NASA is reporting that no repairs are needed for Endeavor. 'After meeting for five hours, mission managers opted Thursday night against any risky spacewalk repairs, after receiving the results of one final thermal test. The massive amount of data indicated Endeavor would suffer no serious structural damage during next week's re-entry. Their worry was not that Endeavor might be destroyed and its seven astronauts killed in a replay of the Columbia disaster — the gouge is too small to be catastrophic. They were concerned that the heat of re-entry could weaken the shuttle's aluminum frame at the damaged spot and result in lengthy post-flight repairs.'"
It reminds me of a while back when a friend of mine called his mother to tell her he had a few drinks and was gonna stay the night at a friend's house. Her response was, "Yeah, I wouldn't want anything to happen to the car."
Regardless, I admire their fortitude given the history of the Columbia and all that has happened. I hope everything goes well and they get home safely.
--
Captialism: When it uses the carrot, it's called democracy. When it uses the stick, it's called facism.
Capitalism: When it uses the carrot, it's called democracy. When it uses the stick, it's called fascism.
need another seven asronauts
I'm going to be ready to hunt of shuttle pieces and ebay them when they get back.
"space shuttle is a death trap" post
If they are that concerned with cutting costs than saving life's, they should stop sending people in to space.
Let's bookmark this article for when the shuttle disintegrates upon re-entry.
It's unfortunate, this could have been a good test case to see how the repair materials/procedures work under realistic conditions.
Having firm, experimental data about:
* The process of applying the patch
* How well the patch stands up to re-entry
* How well the patch protects underlying systems
and more. Better to get this data on a 'non-critical' bit of damage than waiting until something is REALLY busted before finding the inadequecy.
They've done extensive testing on the ground, I'm sure, but a real-world test scenario can trump ten lab extrapolations. That's why we do external betas of software, the real world always has something up it's sleeve.
Now that link is a bit of a read, but a very striking introduction on influencing decision-making with presentation techniques, even if this costs other people's lives.
molmod.com - computing tips from a molecular modeling
...or the shuttle's days will be numbered even if it is still a useful tool.
Endeavour is currently on the sixth shuttle mission since Columbia was lost. On Slashdot there's a chance that somebody could tell you what was achieved on any of those six missions. Ask an average member of the public though, and I guarantee you that less than 1% have any idea of a single piece of scientific research achieved on any of those six flights.
A large number of those members of the public will be able to tell you about the scares over foam and tiles on every single mission though - because that is the only part of shuttle missions that the media cares about.
This is only going to be fixed one way. NASA has to start giving out copious quantities of interesting video from shuttle flights to the media, and completely seal away from the media any talk of damage or problems. The damage has been of no real significance every time, but it is the only thing we're talking about.
Unless NASA can extricate itself from the media black hole, it will never again run a shuttle mission without the shuttle being called into question - and that will eventually lead to calls for funding for this "dangerous" vehicle to be withdrawn. After all, it doesn't actually do anything when it is up there, right?
Here's where we get to watch a lot of folks decide whether to comment on the effects of something outside of their experience and expertise.
I've seen photos and 3D imaging of the bashed tiles. I know very little of the forces involved. I have seen no structural analysis of the materials that are beneath the deepest part of the gouge.
To a limited extent, I can compare this damage to the past damaged tiles. There seem to have been a number of similar damaged tiles in the past, and those flights landed safely.
The astronauts could slap some of that goop on the gouge, but risk damaging the tiles by accident, or changing the aerodynamics of the craft.
There are many unknowns. I really don't know what will happen when Endeavour reenters.
I wish them well, and hope that NASA can complete the remaining shuttle flights without mishap.
You can't talk about Wikipedia's flaws on Wikipedia
"We're good to return without repairs? Ummm...tell you what, just drop me off at the ISS and I'll wait for the next shuttle, ok?"
It is by the juice of the coffee bean that thoughts acquire speed, the teeth acquire stains. The stains become a warning
640 tiles is enough for everyone
As a former USAF avionics specialist and later crew chief, one thing was always true:
The decision about air-worthiness, mission-worthiness was the pilot's, the aircraft commander.
It didn't matter if I told him that sure, the plane will fly, if he didn't like it, the plane didn't fly.
So, NASA, provide all the information to the commander, pilot, and crew, and let THEM make the call. If you don't like what they decide, it can be taken up AFTER the mission.
Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong fix.
> after receiving the results of one final thermal test
While playing Stairway to Heaven, bic lighters were waved back and forth over the affected area.
Bark less. Wag more.
...why don't they replace the tiles anyway, just to be sure? The article suggests that a spacewalk would create added risk, but we know that spacewalks occur all the time routinely. Perhaps there is a financial motivation for not carrying out the repair? I don't know. What I'd like to see is an actual breakdown of the possible positive and negative consequences of each course of action and the probabilities that NASA has assigned to the outcomes. I'm really hoping that they've put some serious statistical analysis into this decision and aren't just flying by the seat of their pants. Certainly, the article quotes a Nobel Prize-winning physicist, Douglas Osheroff, as saying that the repairs "can only increase their chances of making it down."
Phoenix, Boston, Little Rock, see a pattern?
Subj: Space Shuttle
However tempting it may be, given the considerable savings, please don't source any more tiles from "Home Depot".
NASA Mgmt.
Why wouldn't you want to make the calls?
As a mission manager you'd have next to no reprimand if anything goes wrong (see: columbia aftermath), even as a direct result of policies you've implemented and the decisions you make.
The astronauts are trained not to worry about these because they have t ooperate a highly complicated SPACEFARING VEHICLE, so they won'nt be the wiser until shit starts breaking off.
Frankly, I would make the call with a big, shit-eating grin on my face. THAT'll teach those nasa flyboys not to trust a bunch of PHBs on the ground.
I never spellcheck and I freely admit it. Save your karma for more worthwhile "lol erorrs" replies
In anticipation of the forthcoming shuttle detonation over eastern Texas, eBay has resurrected its "shuttle parts" category and raised its rates. This new category joins other profit centers like impromptu religious artifacts, celebrity bodily fluids and captured jihad munitions.
technical writing / development
Bullshit. They should attemt a repair, if only to get data on how efective and practical repairs are. They'll need this information for future missions, when they might have to deal with larger gouges. They ow have a chance to analyse the effectiveness of the patch procedure, and make any necessary changes. They also probably have a "motivated crew", if you know what I mean ...
Or is the possibility of repair just the NASA equivalent of "security theatre"?
for instance, if the first line of the first presentation slide contained in a big font "astronaut's lives are at risk" then the powerpoint presentation would have conveyed a much different message.
Don't they know? "Every time they send a teacher up on the shuttle - it's catastrophic!"
*sighs*
- Once again safety last, just proves NASA learns jack from it's mistakes
- Potential for a great test case in real world situations avoided.
If lives weren't involved, I'd want NASA to be wrong just so we'd get them to stop being pig-headed. For all the money involved in NASA, if it was put out as prize grants we'd probably get a lot more space presence and learning.
*sighs*
They can't actually replace entire tiles on orbit. They have a 'patching' system which allows them to spread a compound into any nicks in the tiles.
Now, the compound has to be applied by an astronaut attached to a long extension arm attached to the Shuttle's robotic arm. When they tested this a few flights ago, it became readily apparent that it was at best difficult to work this way. The length of the arm caused significant 'bouncing' with every motion. At the time they only pulled a gap filler and simulated the motion of filling a tile and it wasn't easy.
The real danger is that the control issues of having a 'massive' astronaut + EVA gear swinging around on the end of that very long arm so close to the TPS could actually cause more damage to the tiles than it fixed.
Furthermore, the compound could actually cause even worse localised heating issues on re-entry depending on how well it fills the tile ie: It could cause ducting etc.
Ripping an new rectum in the fabric of spacetime.
I have a fixed memory of this. I will never forget sitting in reading class with my classmates watching it go up, up, up, and then kablueeee! All our mouths dropped. We had never seen anything like it at the time. Decades later, I don't think anybody is surprised by disaster anymore. In fact, I think it's expected to happen( no, thanks to Bush!).
I do hope these guys make it back. But I think there is a serious problem. We all know the space fleet is beyond it's shelf life. So why hasn't it been scraped and reinvented with more pioneering technology? I feel that if there's another catastrophic disaster; then NASA will be dismantled. Perhaps it should be. I've always dreamed about space exploration but our current state of affairs is a recipe for failure. If our planet is too succeed; then full support and focus is needed by all. I'll say a prayer our current space explorers. I truly hope they make it back in one piece.
Man, that pretty much fixes everything... did they forget to pack any this trip?
Jeez,
The crew and shuttle are not in any danger from this. Dozens of engineers from all over the country spent many hours doing thermodynamic modeling, fluid dynamics modeling, running samples in an arc jet furnace that simulates re-entry and then some. The managers spent more than 4 hours each of the last few days discussing all of these results, not coming to a conclusion until all the results were in, just to make sure the all agreed with each other. The proved that there is no danger to anybody or anything that is going to re-enter earth, so the decided not to do a risky (and scientifically proven unnecessary) spacewalk. Stop with the post saying that NASA should do this or that - the actually DO know what they're doing.
--End rant against silly ideas and preposterous reasoning for doing a repair.
After all the problems NASA has had during reentry with foam and tiles on the shuttle, I don't understand why they haven't built a new craft with a better design; something like Burt Rutan's 'feather' reentry system used on SpaceShipOne would be good. It would reduce the risk from these blazing hot reentries.
I'm happy to hear that the crew is not in serious danger, but it's still past time that we replace the shuttle, which was a poor compromise from the start, with something SnApPiEr.
Kill for fun and profit?
#Purpose: Counter Rant
#Author: Some Young Guy(kinda)
I hope you're right. Other than they fact that THEY do have teams of people who can analyze this problem; do YOU have some insider knoweledge that the damaged tiles are actually a non-issue? Probably not. Therefore you shouldn't assume or believe everything you read. People make mistakes in math, judgement, or are influenced by powers to say the opposite so as to not cast doubt on a volatile situation. Instead of ranting about trusting NASA's judgement; you've overlooked many previous incidences that say otherwise about our space exploration program.
#Done
Angry General:
Son, what do you mean you've blown my multi-billion dollar shuttle ?
Pissing-in-his-pants Soldier:
Well, there was this small gouge you see, we had experts analyze it and they said it was not urgent.
Angry General:
you mean you wouldn't spend a few tens of thousand bucks to keep a multi-billion shuttle in good health ? I'll tell you what, why don't you and your experts go clean the toilets with your tongue while you think things through...
If you look like your passport photo, you're too ill to travel. - Will Kommen
Actually, the whole point is that they weren't.
The problem is that so far in a relatively short interval they had two cuts in two spacesuits' gloves during spacewalks. The last one was a two inch gash, and prompted an immediate abort of the spacewalk. Precisely because noone wants to vaccuum an astronaut.
Now they weren't all the way through the glove. At least the latest one had only cut the top two layers out of five.
But essentially noone wants to find out what happens when you cut all 5 layers.
And the problem is that they don't know _what_ cut two different spacesuits. Exactly where is the sharp edge there, and how big is it? Is it only big enough to do those two layer cuts? Or are we talking about something that could cut all the way through, and we got luck the last two times?
That's, in a nutshell, why they'd rather not risk a spacewalk to fix the tiles, if they can avoid it.
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
I'm under the impression they've had dozens of defects more extensive than this one in the hundre-plus returns. At least they did laboratory tests and computer modeling of the exact defect they discovered this time.
No offense, but I'm inherently... weary... of people waving the banner that someone _else_ should sacrifice everything for the general progress.
If you think a life is that disposable, why don't you go risk _your_ life on some endeavour that benefits everyone? _Then_ you'll have the moral high ground to preach that kind of thing. Until then, way I see it, you're safely in a chair at a computer, preaching that someone _else_ should take unnecessary risks to further your standard of living.
And that's a... sociopathic attitude, to say the least.
You want to talk about the scientific developments that shaped the 20'th century? How about the fact that most of them were driven by the need for safety and/or comfort, and a lot of the rest were driven by consumerism?
If we just wanted to live hard and risky, then we wouldn't have needed all that science and technology anyway. What we actually wanted was stuff like:
- travelling cheaper, safer and more comfortable, hence the automobile instead of riding a buggy like the Amish. A lot of the research that went into the automobile was precisely so it wouldn't be a deathtrap that throws a wheel if you even take a too tight curve.
- some cheap and comfortable way to stay in touch: hence, telegraph and then telephone
- entertainment. Hence technologies like the movies, or TV
- some _safe_ lighting (lighting itself being a quality of life issue): most cities had already invested heavily in gas lighting when Edison proposed electric lighting
- to not die of the first disease that drops by: hence, antibiotics
- even in military applications, to _not_ lose more soldiers than strictly unavoidable: the main use of machineguns in WW1 was _defensive_, and that's why it ended up a stalemate
Etc, etc, etc.
So bemoaning safety and concern for human life as some brake on progress, doesn't strike me as just disingenuous, but also as outright mis-informed and mis-leading. That's not brakes, that's what drove most of progress.
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
"The chairman of the mission management team, John Shannon, said Johnson Space Center's engineering group in Houston wanted to proceed with the repairs. But everyone else, including safety officials, voted to skip them.
The spacewalk would have had added risk, so much so that mission managers did not want to attempt it unless absolutely necessary. Wednesday's spacewalk, cut short by an astronaut's ripped glove, showed how hazardous even a relatively routine spacewalk can be."
So not sending crews out on a potentially risky and unnecessary spacewalk to fix a problem that had been characterized as only effecting shuttle maintenance is showing no concern for the astronauts?
Jeez, how does the parent get modded insightful, for not being able to determine context?
You're the kind to bitch if they did send them out there to fix it.
....NASA's in-space repair abilities that they spent gobs of money on after Columbia remind me a lot about our "Disaster Recovery" plans at my firm. Sure.. we have one; Sure.. we spend a lot of money on it;... but please.. oh please.. don't make us actually test it or put it into practice.
I hope they didn't just spend all that money so that could check the "Disaster Recovery" check box on some form and quiet the complaints.
All the strong layers of whatever you want to strap onto an astronaut in addition to all the crap s/he's already got to wear and maneuver through won't help all that much against a small particle moving at that speed.
Slashdot Burying Stories About Slashdot Media Owned
who modded the parent "offtopic" ? someone devoid of capability to establish correlations ?
Read radical news here
it seems unfortunately some idiot that have no capability of establishing correlations among real world concepts have got ahold of some mod points or s/he is a fundamentalist nasa fanboi/girl. I bet s/he is the same person who modded this comment offtopic too : http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=272623&cid=202 60853
such people should be prevented from mod points. they are harming the community
Read radical news here
Isn't the whole justification for manned missions that people can react and do a lot more than robots, at least at this point in time? And yet we're afraid to let them out the door to actually do anything. Time and again when people are given the chance to perform they rise to the occasion and exceed expectations.
Remind me, how many astronauts have we lost on spacewalks?
...landed just fine with tiles completely missing from the underbelly of the ship. For the earlier flights before the Columbia disaster, a typical shuttle mission had on average about 40 or so damaged tiles from foam and ice collisions during liftoff and climbout. One Columbia mission in 1997 even landed just fine with over 300 tiles damaged. In 1988, probably the most extensive tile damage was the Atlantis landing at Edwards with over 700 tiles damaged on the lower portions of the ship, with 298 of those having damage bigger than one inch. Extensive repairs were needed after that one.
While I basically agree with the thrust of your argument that armchair quarterbacks are talking out of the wrong orifice on this one, I think the same applies to those defending the decision doesn't it?
I am prepared to go along with the experts, but it still seems to me that the "downside" of repairing the hole has been wildly exaggerated. IMO it seems unlikely in the extreme, (based on previous mission reported experiences), that an astronaut would damage the underbelly of the shuttle by fixing it. It's possible of course, but these kinds of manouvres have been carried out for many years, mostly without incident. And even if they did damage it, thats a commercial loss, not a loss of human life, right?
Why gamble with human lives because you are worried about scratching the expensive "space SUV?"
It's possible that a blob on the bottom of the orbiter could cause some kind of flow abnormality also, but again, this seems like another bit of hyperbole to me. We are talking about a repair system specifically designed for this purpose. One that could possibly end up with a bit of ceramic paste sticking out a few milimetres from the bottom surface. Unless they already know that the much vaunted "repair kit" doesn't work and is more of a media item than a useful tool, why would they not take this opportunity to show us how fabulously it works?
As I said, they are most likely making the correct decision here and most of us probably don't know what we are talking about, but when the only downside to fixing it is likely a commercial loss and the downside to not fixing it is another ship full of dead astronauts, you'd think they would give their brand new space-caulking-gun a whirl.
Regardless of whether it's critical or not, why don't they use this as an oppertunity to test their ability to fix such issues in space? Try the emergency sealant/filler/whatever and see how effectively it works in a *real* scenario.
Sooner or later it's no doubt going to be needed, so why not build up practical experience?
Also, this would a chance to test the repair kits in a real world scenario. It's a simple 2x2 matrix of whether is works or not and whether it was needed or not. The only problem is if the repair doesn't work and was needed, but then the results are the same as if you've done nothing.
The only time you wouldn't want to do the repairs is if there's a threat that the repairs either make things worse or the act of doing the repairs causes more damage. If these are the case then NASA needs to rethink the repair procedures.
First:
e re.htm
http://www.idlewords.com/2005/08/a_rocket_to_nowh
Second, covering up what a piece of shit it might be isn't going to make it any better, and good luck covering up anything like Columbia(which would probably be more likely in the insular environment you propose).
Tautologically speaking, the future lies in the future, not the past. The space program should take stock of that and abandon its current public relations focus and get back to doing interesting stuff, like imaging the entirety of the planet in interesting frequencies and so on. Ten unserviceable Hubblets would have done plenty of good science too.
Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
After the reviews, investigations, and all the freaking hoopla about things falling on the shuttle during take-off, please tell me why we are having this discussion.
If we cant keep chunks of stupidity from falling and breaking things, maybe we need to figure out a different way to launch the thing..
entire world should be modded offtopic to hell
Read radical news here
given their record, I wouldn't
I wonder how much has been lost
I'm worried they are still playing Russian roulette with the space shuttle. "Well, it didn't burn up/blow up that time. It must be OK."
"You'll get nothing, and you'll like it!"
The damage is such that it may well destroy the spacecraft. Plasma will get into the airframe and wheel well, and not so far from the APCs, which potentially could explode. Previous protocol required that the crew return by Russian capsule and leave the shuttle docked to Fred. NASA doesn't have a good record on making non-political decisions regarding shuttle safety. They ought to at least give the crew options on return method.
. . . during re-entry wondering if leaving their fate to a committee was a smart idea.
What?
So my Ti/carbon fiber bike is more advanced than the space shuttle? What was the reasoning for that design decision?
ROFL. Dude, while I may have said "no offense" before, thinking maybe you're just repeating something you haven't thought much about. But if you actually think that the sterile controlled environment of a lab, plus the fact that once you were underpaid, make you soo entitled to demand that someone risks _death_ in a damaged shuttle... well, please do take offense. Or better yet, please go see a shrink. You're so disconnected from reality, it's funny.
Wake me up when you're actually facing risk at least similar to what you demand there. Like, I don't know, when you've volunteered for new medicine tests. Now even that isn't actually that close, but it's a step upwards.
Plus, you can't say that _you_ are doing it haughtily or foolishly, but demand no less than that NASA does just that: act haughtily and foolishly. Because it's such an outrage to you if they exercise proper caution.
Get a grip.
Plus, to get back to that bitching and moaning about how concerns over safety are braking progress, how do you see that progress happening _without_ it, in this particular case?
If NASA can't keep a multi-billion dollar shuttle from blowing up every few missions, with a whole army to take care of it, how do you propose that that progresses to the stage where it's ready for mass use? Even if we were to accept risking life and limb, a space aircraft/bus that blows up every couple of flights just isn't worth it economically. If that space bus blows up as little as every 10'th trip, even assuming everyone was fearless and bet their life on such odds, you'd be looking at a price high enough to build a new one and train a new crew every 10'th trip.
Any kind of space-related progress from where we are, will have to involve moving more humans and materials through space. Whether it's hotels and labs and office buildings in orbit, or mining sites on the moon and mars, we'll need some kind of cheap and _reliable_ space bus to move people and cargo up and down. And the current space shuttle just isn't it. Someone will have to make something with a better safety record, not because of "scaremongering", but because it's just not worth shipping anything up and down if you blow up a multi-billion dollar shuttle every few flights. There's just no price at which you can sell that cargo, or the tickets on such a space bus, that covers that kind of losses.
So from a very pragmatic point of view, NASA _has_ to work on a better safety record before that technology is ready to trickle down to civillian use. If they take a cavallier "oh well, human lives are expendable" attitude, space flight will never progress from ivory-tower national-penis-size-symbol to a more mass-use technology.
So even if it were scaremongering that drives that research into safety... good! Because we'll need that anyway, if we're progress in that direction.
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
Why hasn't this been discussed? Since it seems to be the newsworthiest story of the last few shuttle flights and all, you would think someone would have brought it up.
/. right now! band together and brainstorm!
Are there any alternatives to the thermal tiles? I'm sure that NASA has some profound (no, really) reasoning for using them and all, but isn't there an alternative? A solid piece of thermal plating on the underside (aside from landing gear doors) would be easier to repair than spreading space grout with an astro-trowel, no? Or is it that the tiles distribute the heat more evenly that that are continually used?
I'm sure they're thinking of a way out of the tiles at this point, and one of the lead developers could even be reading
oh marmalade.
Endeavour.
/NASA = Need Another Spellcheck ASAP
http://space.about.com/b/a/256929.htm
Perhaps NASA should try out their procedure for repairing tile damage. If the repair doesn't work as expected, the experience gained may prove useful on some future occasion.
Is the repair procedure really riskier than re-entering the atmosphere with the damage untreated? I think the final decision should be made by the crew. The crew might even abandon the repair procedure, if it goes badly, and still learn something from the attempt.
to get decent coverage of a shuttle launch. I was watching the NASA-TV internet streaming video of the launch, and also turned on ABC network news hoping to see some better video. The network coverage:
Didn't even START until T-30 seconds.
The commentator kept talking OVER the astronauts and CAPCOM voice feed. Heaven forbid the blow-dried talking head SHUT UP for a few minutes!
Ended even before SRB separation.
Remember "News for Nerds, Stuff that Matters"? Help make it a reality again! http://soylentnews.org
> We all know the space fleet is beyond it's shelf life. So why hasn't it been scraped and reinvented with more pioneering technology?
It sort of has been proposed that the shuttle should be replaced with "more pioneering technology." But you'll notice that the current ideas on the table, specifically the Orion spacecraft, are similar in design to something from the Apollo era with some technology borrowed from the shuttle. What's old is new again, I suppose.
I know, I'm sure you were expecting something Star Trek-esque rather than the antiquated splash-down capsule for four to six astronauts. But, save for Apollo One, we never lost any crews on the Apollo missions--and Apollo One was lost on the launch pad. (Understandably, the shuttles have flown far more missions, but there's something to be said for simple design.)
He who has no
How is the possible repair of actual damage to the Shuttle underbelly more risky than removing filler material sticking out the tile gaps previously?? It seems to me that it was much more risky to remove the filler material when there was no tile damage present. I believe the reasoning was that the filler material could affect the aerodynamics of the Shuttle, but so could a 3" gash in the underbelly.
Man, there is going to be a lot of engineers holding their breathe on this landing...
The ET/alient factor.
They have to edit everything much much more because of ET objects. Some might mod this funny. But can you ask yourself the exact question the parent posted posed, why does nasa not give out more? Why isin't there a 'shuttle space cam' that just peers off into space on the shuttle, or many cams for that matter. They could even be accessed from the internet, though this should be obvious by now. There is a reason stuff is being withheld. If it is not ET objects/phenomena then why don't they do this. Please proove me wrong.
Why aren't there some shows on Discovery Channel about the Shuttle and ISS? I can't recall a single show in the last 5 years. You would think they would be able to fit in at least one or two between endless reruns of Mythbusters, Dirty Jobs, and Deadliest Catch. I propose we all write to Discovery Channel and demand more coverage.
The shuttle's name is Endeavour, spelled in the British way, instead of Endeavor. The shuttle is named after HM Bark Endeavour, the ship commanded by James Cook, and the name also honors the Command Module of Apollo 15, which was also called Endeavour.
Hier staat een stukje tekst.
Here is what is different from STS-107 and before:
* Many more cameras to monitor the ascent, including those cool views from the tops and bottoms of BOTH SRB's
* A new orbiter sensing boom with LASER cameras to get 3D images. Used at least twice every mission, day 2 and again two days before re-entry
* An extra back-flip maneuver during the ISS rendezvous for hi-res photos.
So as a result, they knew about this problem prior to landing which they WOULDN'T have on any mission before STS-107.
Also new:
* 3 different methods of tile repair if needed.
So now they take all of this and make a detailed engineering and risk analysis. What are we risking by landing as is? Computer model predicts that it is OK to land. Also, ACTUAL TILE is put into the arc-jet and tested in REAL REENTRY CONDITIONS to determine what happens if we leave it alone.
Oh, and don't forget they have the engineering expertise of 116 prior SUCCESSFUL Space Shuttle reentries and landings to draw from too, including a very similar tile damage event from STS-26.
Compare all of that to the VERY REAL RISK of causing WORSE damage by attempting the repair.
Their careful judgment: Leave it alone.
Is this a risk free decision? Nope - spaceflight is ALWAYS GOING TO BE A RISK. So everyone needs to get over that part. As long as they are making decisions on SCIENTIFIC and ENGINEERING grounds instead of the old Challenger/Columbia "well the o-ring/foam hasn't killed us before so it won't this time" mindset from before the accidents.
They did a good job here. Think it through and give them a break...
Oh, and as for the "why don't we get a new vehicle" posters - we are. Orion, 2014. Shuttle program over no later than October 1, 2010. Want it sooner? Give NASA MANY more billion dollars per year than we are now and they can get Orion going faster. Otherwise, here we are.
NASA = Need Another Seven Astronauts
The decision sort of already is with the crew. They may have nerves of steel, but I seriously doubt any of them are going to blindly take the risk unnecessarily.
If the crew didn't trust the engineers on the ground, they don't have to re-enter. Ground control can't get the shuttle down remotely without the crew prepping it (landing gear control needs to be hooked up to the computer, thrusters need to be powered on, docking hatch has to be sealed). They can raise a fuss and holler, and NASA will get them down by their altnernate means (Soyuz or rushed rescue shuttle). Sure, outright rebellion would be the end of their careers, but these are smart people, and a career doesn't mean much if you're dead.
So the crew is implicitly in the decision loop. They might not have all the info, but at the very least you know they've seen the damage. The general public probably doesn't really appreciate how much the crew, especially the pilot and commander, are very familiar with the inner workings of the shuttle. They definitely know enough to be able to make intuitive assessments of various situations, such as aircraft pilots passed on your work as an avionics specialist, and possibly numerical ones too (since about half the crew has engineering degrees).
Assuming ground control has fully briefed them, which there is not really any reason to doubt, they recognize there is an added risk to re-entering as-is, and there is a risk to sending astronauts out-of-sight underneath the shuttle where there's potential for them to cause further damage if they're not careful. They've said in several interviews they're aware of the damage, but trust the assessment from the ground.
I personally thought this would be an outstanding opportunity to do a real test of their repair method, but obviously people more familiar with it don't find the payoff equal to the added risk.
Sorry I don't have any mod points, but everyone interested in this discussion should be aware of the material you posted.
These articles on NASA are definitive proof that when it comes to aerospace/NASA if ignorance was truly bliss, the average Slashdotter would be orgasmic.
-- toolie
(the old Challenger-era joke.)
I'm no expert on these things, but wouldn't it make sense to leave the astronauts on the ISS to be returned by a Soyuz capsule, rather than risking their lives by landing them on a potentially damaged craft?
After all, the shuttle did gain the ability to land on its own a few years back.
Sure, Russia would have to send 2 extra pods to the ISS, but from what I understand, that's a fairly trivial procedure when compared to a shuttle launch. (Compare these two pictures. Note the size of the man standing next to the rocket, along with the profound lack of ground infrastructure.)
-- If you try to fail and succeed, which have you done? - Uli's moose
As long as they have an inanimate carbon rod.
Oh, those Golden Grahams.
Oh, those Golden Grahams.
Crispy, crunchy, graham cereal, brand new breakfast treat......
What?
If the shuttle burns up on entry from these chipped and cracked tiles that could have been fixed...
The proper action would be to throw the NASA staff who made the decision not to fix it out of an aircraft at a high altitude without chutes or other means of rescue...
Like fair is fair.
It seams every time one goes up we hear about a hole being knocked in it. I don't remember hearing too much about that in the 80's and 90's. Are they just that freaking old that they're falling apart with every launch?
---- "Excuse me. Where's the children's gun section?"