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.'"

Comments

I'm glad I don't have to make these calls

[ExE122]

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

And I'm sure thats the only thing the astronauts were worried about as well... the precious shuttle.

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.

Re:I'm glad I don't have to make these calls

[ExE122]

NASA haven't panicked and issued all kinds of worrying proclamations when it wasn't worried in the past: why start now?

Because they weren't all that worried about Columbia either. Seven astronauts died because of that.

Don't get me wrong, I see what you're saying. The damage may indeed be comparable to previous missions that went off without a hitch. And it is true, all of the lab tests show no cause for concern. But as another poster mentioned below, all the lab tests in the world can't make up for a real world scenario. The real world always has another trick up it's sleeve.

And you also need to realize that NASA needs to be extra cautious. A repeat of the Columbia disaster would raise some serious concerns about their credibility and may be detrimental to the future of space exploration in general.

--
Capitalism: When it uses the carrot, it's called democracy. When it uses the stick, it's called facism.

Re:I'm glad I don't have to make these calls

[Vellmont]

And I'm sure thats the only thing the astronauts were worried about as well... the precious shuttle.
If the only thing mission control was worried about was "the precious shuttle", then they would have just sent them out right away to fix the gouge.

Spacewalks are potentially dangerous. Micro-meteorites could tear right through a spacesuit and instantly kill an astronaut. They aren't taken lightly and are always judged whether the benefits justify the risks. In this case, they didn't.

Re:I'm glad I don't have to make these calls

[vought]

IMHO if something happens during a space walk, You still can bring the astronaut back on board, and still can try an unrepaired re-entry. But even if the repairing astronaut dies (which is very unlikely), the others are still alive. And what if the astronaut perched at the end of a 100-foot boom crashes into the tiles he's repairing, damaging them more extensively, or even beyond repair? After all, the arm is very heavy and the EVA suit is 300 pounds, along with the 200lb astronaut inside of it. That's a lot of mass to be swinging around next to all the other, undamaged tiles.

Or what if the 'goop', applied unevenly, causes a hot spot on another tile? Right now, the damaged tiles are located over a wing spar - the thickest structural part of the wing, and a section that can take more heating. Since the depth of the gouge indicates that the plasma flow over it will 'eddy' over the deepest area, keeping it from the greatest heat of reentry, models indicate that the aluminum structure of the shuttle won't fail, and that temperatures won't exceed 350f.

The problem with speculating on NASA decisions, as so many coffee urn quarterbacks are doing this morning, is that they really have no idea how complex the shuttle and its mission really are. The items I've outlined here, available in almost no major news stories about the decision, were easily obtained at NASA Tv and Aviation week - and they're a small sample of the factors in this decision.

Re:I'm glad I don't have to make these calls

[Ellis D. Tripp]

>>Because they weren't all that worried about Columbia either. Seven astronauts died because of that.

In all fairness, nobody at NASA knew the extent of the damage to Columbia prior to reentry. There were engineers who suspected that there might be some, and wanted photography to be sure, which NASA disallowed. If the existence of a large hole in the leading edge of the wing was known, some type of rescue operation could possibly have been put into place, as there was no repair possibility at that time.

In this case, NASA had detailed imagery of the damaged area several days before the return. That allowed for detailed analysis and laboratory testing, which have apparently convinced NASA that the extent of damage is limited enough that no repairs are required prior to reentry.

I would like to know what assumptions were used in making the "no repair" decision, nonetheless. It would seem to me that even if the damage was not severe enough to REQUIRE the repair, this situation provided a chance to test out the newly developed repair techniques and materials in a "real world" setting, allowing engineers and future crews to gain more confidence in the repairs if and when they are required on a future mission. Is the risk of an EVA/repair causing further damage really high enough to justify throwing away what could be a very valuable "learning experience"?

Hey, NASA, here's an idea...

[WED Fan]

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.

Re:Hey, NASA, here's an idea...

[Billosaur]

But that's the difference between an aircraft and a spacecraft -- an aircraft pilot can look his plane over, read up on the maintenance, talk to his ground crew and then decide to fly or not. In NASA, it works differently. A Space Shuttle commander has command of the spacecraft, but Mission Control in Houston has command of the mission. You have to remember: the crew of the Shuttle can't just go bombing around in Earth orbit like they are flying the Millennium Falcon. Every move has to be choreographed and planned out months and even years in advance. When unexpected problems crop up, the technicians on the ground certainly know more about the workings of the machine than the crew, as they have all the data at the fingertips, they are experts in their systems, and they can draw on contractor resources to get more information. Decisions like this cannot be left to the spacecraft commander; his/her job is hard enough without having to keep in their head the compendious amount of information regarding their spacecraft.

It has been this way since Mercury; it was Chris Kraft who outlined the need for the ground to have the skills required to manage the mission and deal with problems in real time, so that the crew could concentrate on their activities in space. The system has worked extremely well over all these years, with the exception of the Columbia accident. I for one am confident that NASA knows what it is doing and will take all the precautions it can before Endeavour is allowed to land.

One final test

[ubrgeek]

> 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.

Re:Disaster waiting to happen

[TheMeuge]

Life has a cost too.

We seem to have forgotten that in the U.S. lately. Granted, the integrity of the shuttle frame is not worth human life, but the panicked semi-troll responses to this crisis made me realize yet again how far we've fallen as a society.

The same people are "concerned" now, as the ones who were calling for ending the space program after Columbia.

We are so fat and content that we seem to think that anything that interferes with our blissful lives must be a curse. We have forgotten the drive and determination of scientists, engineers, and many others, which made the world we're living in possible. Make no mistake about it - without self-sacrifice, many of the technological and scientific developments that shaped the latter half of the 20th century would not have been possible.

Yet the population, spurred on by the scaremongering media, seem to think that we've now magically gotten to a point at which we can make everything safe. Well... we almost can... if we all just stay home. But if we want another revolution in the development of our species, like the one that spanned 1850-1975, we will have to accept that some things are worth it. Yes, it's important to minimize risk... but sometimes you have to accept a reasonable amount of risk, take a deep breath, and just go.

Anyway, sorry about the rant...

Memo to all NASA employees:

[Ed_1024]

Subj: Space Shuttle

However tempting it may be, given the considerable savings, please don't source any more tiles from "Home Depot".

NASA Mgmt.