NASA Seeks In-Orbit Bandage for Shuttle boo-boos

Discovery Channel ^ | Irene Klotz

[cogitator]

Aug. 29, 2003 — In pledging to enact every recommendation of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board, NASA administrator Sean O'Keefe has committed the agency to climb a technological mountain: Design a band-aid that can withstand temperatures hot enough to melt lead, iron and titanium.

"That's something that NASA is really working [on] very intensely," said board member Sheila Widnall, an expert on flight aerodynamics who teaches at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

"There are very few materials that can withstand those kinds of temperatures. It's a tremendous problem," she said.

Accident investigators, who delivered their findings and recommendations this week, want NASA to be able to repair a breach in the shuttle's outer skin, which protects the ship from the 3,000-degree Fahrenheit temperatures experienced during atmospheric re-entry.

Columbia was destroyed and its seven-member crew killed on Feb. 1 because of a hole in the leading edge of its left wing. Superheated air blasted inside the wing's structure and melted it as the shuttle flew through the atmosphere in preparation for landing. The hole was made by a piece of falling foam insulation during launch.

The board wants NASA to prevent debris hits in the first place, but if any impact should occur, astronauts must be able to make repairs while the shuttle is in orbit. The repair capability is one of 15 changes NASA should implement before it attempts to return the remaining three shuttles to flight, the board said.

The edges of the shuttle's wings are made of a reinforced carbon-carbon material, but the problem is what to use to attach a patch, Widnall said. "The RCC repair is the most difficult technical problem."

Board member Scott Hubbard, director of NASA's Ames Research Center in California, said the agency is casting a wide net in its search for solutions, including experimenting with recent discoveries about how geckos are able to stick to walls and ceilings.

The adhesion forces come not from chemical bonding, but physics. Gecko toes have tiny hairs that end in tips called spatulea, which generate weak molecular interactions known as van der Waals forces. It is the geometry of the spatulea that give geckos their gravity-defying powers. Scientists are developing synthetic "gecko glue," which, if made of heat-resistant carbon, may provide the answer to NASA's problem.

"Using very small carbon fibers you could create the capability to take a piece of carbon and push it on and have it stay on there," Hubbard said.

NASA also is looking at a manufacturer's technique for repairing carbon composite rocket nozzles.

Developing a heat-resistant bandage for the shuttle may take longer than NASA originally anticipated. The agency wants to have their next ship off the launch pad in March, but has promised to not be blind-sided by schedules.

Accidents investigators cited the demands of completing the International Space Station as one of the factors that contributed to NASA's inability to recognize the falling foam insulation as a danger to the shuttles.

[cogitator]

It'd be nice if they could also come up with a way to test the reliability of such a patch under real re-entry conditions! (The phrase "low bidder" comes to mind.)

[TheErnFormerlyKnownAsBig]

Can you tell where my mind is right now? I thought the headline read, NASA seeks in flight Bondage ..... ."

[Publius6961]

What's wrong with duct tape?

AKA mexican epoxy?

[tet68]

No carbon fibre duct tape?
No carbon fibre JB weld?
No carbon fibre patch with carbon fibre screws?
No carbon fibre GooP tm.

They ARE F**ked!

Note to NASA.

KISS

[Springman]

Ping!

[Robe]

Use the ISS as a REAL research site , and do some experimenting with various
substances in the near vacuum of LEO.

I'm thinking maybe a caulking gun like device which would disperse a semi-cementitious
foam inside the hole. Let it ooze out and shape it to the original surface.

It's doesn't have to last long.. only about 15min through the worst of the re-entry heating

Sound Crazy ? ... Remember on Skylab they used a modified pruning shears to dislodge the solar wing !

IMHO

[RoughDobermann]

The agency wants to have their next ship off the launch pad in March, but has promised to not be blind-sided by schedules.

Oh my G_d! Mothball the orbiters and build something that doesn't have a nasty tendency to blow up every once in a while!! One that can achieve escape velocity would be nice, too. Enough with the flying taxi ferrying supplies to the ISS so that the occupants can perform more experiments on the effects of microgravity on earthworm erectile dysfunction.

[RightWhale]

No carbon fibre GooP tm.

They could use anything, tungsten even. Weight wouldn't matter for a patch. A couple of nails to hold it from slipping, and they are home free.

[tet68]

I just want them to keep it simple, think Bubba repair!
It might look like hell, it might even smell like hell,
but it only has to work ONCE.

[RightWhale]

Mothball the orbiters and build something

That would free up $10 billion a year. No doubt something very impressive could be built in a couple of years with that kind of fiscal clout.

[RoughDobermann]

That would free up $10 billion a year. No doubt something very impressive could be built in a couple of years with that kind of fiscal clout.

Okay. But what about the "research?" Worms deserve erections too, do they not? ;-) Sorry.

[RightWhale]

Give the ISS to someone who actually wants the white elephant. Russians are still flying supplies and cosmonauts, but probably are driven by a sense of duty more than utility. Chinese will be wanting to do some serious catching up in the next few years, give them the key to the building.

[Siegfried]

So, did the report include a suggestion to tell the enviro-extremists to screw themselves and go back to using the BEST formula for insulating foam on the external fuel tank, instead of the "eco-friendly" foam that caused this problem and killed those astronauts?

If NASA wants to do EVERYTHING they can to ensure safety of future missions they'd better examine that factor. If they don't then I'll have no other conclusion to reach than they're just checking off squares on a checksheet to avoid future liability suits.

[Wilhelm Tell]

In a similar story, scientists are trying to invent a whitewash strong enough to cover up NASA's incompetent management.

[Sundog]

Just hold on one cotton picken minute.

Nobody remembers what the heat shields were when Apollo capsules came in?

Nobody remembers that 'Ablative' coating?

It was Cork. Common Cheap, easily worked cork. It was about three inches thick.

As the stuff burned off slowly, the aluminum underneath didn't.

[RightWhale]

Cork it is, then. If the hole is larger than one cork, the astronauts will have to empty a few extra bottles. The hardships of space travel are draining.

[Sundog]

Maybe something like diamond studs in cork would be flexible enough to wrap around a ruptured wing, with diamond capped tungsten screws sunk into the tiles,

Diamonds and cork backed by a tungsten mesh, maybe look like fish scales. Next accident probably won't have anything to do with a ruptured wing section, and who knows what repair kit will be needed.

[Uncle Fud]

Wish it were $10 billion per year. The Columbia report shows the shuttle program at approx $3.2 billion (still, think about that, divided by 4 - 5 flights a year!).

[Brett66]

600-800 million per flight, that sounds about right. Amazing NASA was able to maintain this boondoggle for so long. Even these outrageous costs aren't what stopped it, it was the shuttle's unreliability that was it's undoing.

[RightWhale]

There are still modules and struts to be attached to the ISS. A big freight booster would be in order, as well as a smaller crew launcher. We'll be back in business and better than ever in a couple years.