Posted on 08/01/2005 4:01:54 PM PDT by Selkie
NASA ORDERS SPACEWALK TO FIX DANGLING STRIPS
Duct tape. Fixes everything. :)
Better safe then sorry. Easy enough to do and add it to the last spacewalk.
I know NASCAR uses 200 mph duct tape after a crash, not sure if they make 20,000 duct tape. Will have to ask Red Green. He'd know.
What resources are available to them to fix this?
(CBS/AP) NASA has decided to order an unprecedented repair mission by Discovery's astronauts on Wednesday to repair a potential problem on the shuttle's belly, CBS News Correspondent Mark Strassmann reports.
Meanwhile, two Discovery astronauts went for a spacewalk Monday to make repairs on the international space station.
Astronauts Stephen Robinson and Soichi Noguchi spent seven hours exchanging a broken down 660-pound gyroscope, which failed in 2002, with a new one.
"Oh, the view is priceless," Noguchi said as he hitched a ride to Discovery's cargo bay on the outpost's robotic arm. "I can see the moon."
With Robinson's help, Noguchi secured the controller aboard the shuttle and retrieved the new gyroscope for installation. After hours of tedious bolting and unbolting with specialized silver drivers, the pair completed the installation.
"This is just like putting in an airplane engine," said Robinson, a pilot.
"Just wiggling until you get it," Noguchi responded, causing his partner to chuckle.
"Yeah, exactly. Prepare to wiggle," Robinson said.
Both continued bolting and wiggling until the unit was tightly attached.
Their spacewalk came as NASA officials considered what to do about a ceramic cloth, called "gap filler," found sticking out between heat shield tiles in two places on the shuttle's underbelly.
The debate among engineers and others was how to handle what would be an unprecedented repair – and whether it is even necessary.
Some engineers worry that the protruding filler could trigger potentially treacherous overheating during re-entry.
"You don't want that to happen because it could effect your safety margin on the shuttle and damage heat shield tiles. You don't want to do that," said CBS News Space Consultant Bill Harwood.
A major fix would involve a spacewalk and a Discovery astronaut cutting off the material that sticks out or yanking out the gap filler altogether, reports Strassmann.
NASA officials stressed that Discovery and its crew could be perfectly safe flying back with the exposed filler. Space shuttles have flown with exposed filler many times before, just not necessarily with such a large protrusion.
One piece is sticking out 1.1 inches. The other protrudes at an angle from six-tenths to nine-tenths of an inch. The general wisdom and flight history indicate that the limit should be a quarter-inch, said flight director Paul Hill
Deputy shuttle program manager Wayne Hale said more technical information is needed and the risks of causing further damage by going underneath the shuttle need to be considered.
"We certainly don't want to make the situation worse than it is," he said. "My immediate knee-jerk reaction was that we can live with this. On the other hand, this is bigger than we have seen before."
In 24 years of shuttle flight, astronauts have never ventured beneath their spacecraft in orbit and have made few repairs to their ship.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1455014/posts
Shuttle To Be Repaired In Flight
CBSNews ^ | August1,2005 | Mark Strassmann
Thanks
The tin foil weirdos
are glittering over this
entire mission:
"... He reminded me that, about two years ago -- after the Columbia tragedy, and as the realization shockingly dawned within NASA that the Shuttle's days were numbered -- we had a key discussion regarding some in NASA's "hidden agenda," regarding both the aging Shuttle Program ... and that other unspoken "NASA albatross" -- the International Space Station (ISS).
"We'd discussed his discovering "a covert plan inside NASA," to "somehow" ground the Shuttles -- permanently -- long before the President's eventually-announced retirement date "of 2010!"
"This would immediately free up (according to these planners) a LOT of (currently limited) NASA money to vigorously pursue the President's new Space Vision -- "back to the Moon ... on to Mars ... and Beyond" -- by providing funds desperately necessary NOW to develop the critically-needed successor to the Shuttles: the "Crew Exploration Vehicle" (or, CEV) ... years earlier than is now possible financially! ..."
[Captain's Blog Space News & General Commentary by Richard C. Hoagland ]
I told my husband that none of the astronauts are from Maine because they never would have gone up without Duct tape or Bungee cords. LOL
Forceps, scissors and a hacksaw-like tool.
view of Space Shuttle Discovery as seen from the International Space Station Monday
Dangling Strips are the progeny of Hanging Chads.
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