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Minor Damage Found On Space Shuttle
The BBC is reporting on minor damage to the space shuttle Atlantis revealed by a 10-hour inspection in orbit. On the shuttle's right side, near where the wing joins the body, inspection revealed a 21" (53cm) line of chips in the tiles that make up the vehicle's heat shield. "...more analysis by engineers would determine whether a 'focused inspection' was needed in that specific area. If so, astronauts would use sensors to determine the exact depth of the damage to the heat shield tiles. NASA has placed the space shuttle Endeavour on stand-by to rescue the crew of Atlantis if they are endangered." The crew couldn't shelter on the ISS in case of trouble, because their orbit is higher and on a different inclination.
.. if they launch Endeavour to rescue Atlantis, and Endeavour suffers damage at launch?
Is this really a new development that the Shuttle gets increasingly fragile or is it just the fact that since Columbia it gets checked extra carefully and therefore revealing what before just went unnoticed?
Don't know much about orbital mechanics, do you?
Changing Apollo 13's course from what it was originally to a free-return course requires the merest nudge compared with the fuel required to change orbital planes like what would be required here.
Also, consider that the LEM had enough fuel in its descent engine to slow its descent and keep from smashing into the moon and an ascent engine to get it back up (though I don't know if the ascent engine fuel is usable by the descent engine).
The descent engine and ascent engine were entirely separate, since the entire descent stage of the LM was discarded on the moon for return. There were no interconnections between the two. That does not mean they couldn't have burned the DPS to exhaustion, staged, and then burned the APS for as long as required.
In any event, the shuttle cannot carry enough fuel to make the orbit change required in this instance simply because the tanks aren't big enough. You can't put 500 gallons of gas in a tank that only holds 300. This is not a simple matter of flying in a line from point A to point B. Go download Orbiter and educate yourself.