Posted on 06/12/2007 4:48:53 PM PDT by XBob
Space Shuttle's Left Wing May Be Damaged Meteorite, Space Junk May Have Struck Panels
POSTED: 5:13 pm EDT June 12, 2007 UPDATED: 7:00 pm EDT June 12, 2007 Email This Story | Print This Story Sign Up for Breaking News Alerts WASHINGTON -- A meteorite or space junk may have struck Space Shuttle Atlantis' left wing, according to NBC News space correspondent Jay Barbree.
NASA recorded a hit on reinforced carbon panels 7 and 8 on the left wing. The panels keep heat from re-entry from burning the spacecraft.
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This is the same area where foam damaged Columbia's left wing and caused it to break up, killing its crew on Feb. 1, 2003.
All true. As part of the post-Columbia protocol, they have time and tools to evaluate the damage, and to patch the RCC panels where they are. If they can't be patched to NASA's satisfaction, there's another bird on the pad -- Endeavour, I think -- ready for a rescue mission. If that is deemed too risky, they can evacuate via Soyuz.
If Atlantis cannot be repaired in orbit, if NASA is not convinced that it can be cleared for re-entry, it will be jettisoned. And that will mean the end of the Shuttle program, and of US manned space missions for at least a decade. It will also mean an end to the construction plans for the ISS, because there isn't another craft that can do the heavy lifting. The ISS itself is stable, and Americans will still be present, but they'll be thumbing a ride from the Russians.
Meanwhile the supplies and capacities of the ISS and orbiter are sufficient to keep the crew safe and (relatively) comfortable for weeks, if need be. This is a concern. There is no urgency.
How do we sit through it?
Lemme tell ya, SEND ME NEXT!!!!
Is it dangerous, yeah, Fer cripes sake, they sit in a vessel lashed to a ‘Controlled Explosion’. Having said that, ‘SEND ME NEXT!!!’
Not a one of the astronauts is dragged kicking and screaming into the Shuttle. Remember, the Shuttle with the damaged wing, flew, coming APART, the crew never knew. It isn’t ‘Clunky’. Not ‘Outdated’. It is my view it is a solid piece of engineering.
As with computers, when a design is finalized, it is ‘obsolete’. Give credit to those able to fly. I wish I were one.
You are aware that the shuttle is going to be phased out in a couple of years, right?
I think the goal is to have CEV flying by 2014. I’ve heard somewhere that NASA wants to move this date up but they are going to have issues to work out. After 2010 the US is going to have to rely on the Russians for transportation to the Space Station.
Sure. They just happened to get up ther on boosters designed for the space programme and launched from places like government launch facilities. Not one taxpayer dollar spent to get them there.
I’m twenty years older than you and when I was in grade school we got let out of class to gather around a small black and white TV in the school library and watch the launches.
The landings at sea and naval recoveries were also quite something.
Call and apply for a position fixing those problems, OR deal with Physics and the limits it applies.
They generally don't, actually. Mars Rovers were about 300 million a piece. The highest end-expense ones like Cassini do come in at 3 billion or so.
And they've actually discovered a lot of amazing stuff. Name me one interesting discovery of the International Space Station.
And the total costs of all countries involved for the ISS are difficult to estimate, but I've seen figures as high as 100 billion.
As with running the Marathon, you need to learn to walk first. NO knowledge is useless, it is POWER. Think about it.
Speaking as a NASA supporter I’d have to say the main problem with the ISS is where it’s at.
They should have put it at a Lagrange point between the Earth and the Moon and only put a refueling/pit stop in LEO.
An LEO refueling/pit stop could have been resupplied automatically with bulk cargo on a much more aggressive and less expensive bulk freight and having the ISS at a Lagrange point would have allowed a much more efficient transfer to the Moon or outer solar system.
IIRC they are on the leading edge of the wings.
I know you’re after my overstatement, understandably, but I think most commercial launches were/are of a French ballistic from various points around the world.
My solution was to take a rubber-like sticky pad with a nipple near the center and put it over the damaged spot and then inject a two part, internally mixed, ablative compound into the nipple. Just let the sticky pad and the ablative compound slowly burn off during re-entry.
There are literally tens of thousands of pieces of space junk big enough to track from the ground. The Chicoms probably added another 10,000.
Many are, but many others have been launched by the Shuttle, the Atlas family of boosters and so on. Boeing’s Sealaunch comes the closest to a truly private launch capability. Others are in the works with boosters that have had successful test firings. France’s Ariannespace is largely government owned (albiet European, but government none the less).
I know that I pounced. Sorry about doing so rather harshly, but I just wanted to make a point. No harsh feelings, FRiend?
oh my ...that would be horrible
What you describe is what was proposed in a NASA document regarding Skylab. After the last mission, one proposal was to replace the gyros, boost its orbit a bit, and use it like a construction site trailer/truck stop for work on a larger space station (i.e. Space Station Freedom).
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