[blackdog]

Can NASA bring those Apollo grunts out of retirement for some serious engineer style foot/butt impact testing?

Does anyone find a basic flaw in the argument that a spacewalk in ZERO GRAVITY is going to damage tiles? I know the nature of the business of putting people in space and back is as dangerous as anything man could dream up even in the best circumstances. But to have the attitude that $hit Happens, and you can't do anything about it is inexcusable.

[Chad Fairbanks]

Does anyone find a basic flaw in the argument that a spacewalk in ZERO GRAVITY is going to damage tiles?

Not really, no? Why, do you?

[John Jamieson]

I'm one of the Apollo grunts (retired 10 years ago). Sorry that the facts don't agree with you. Nor does the man who saved Apollo 13.

Massive failure of the tile was always a loser.

However 17 deaths in 40 years is a pretty good record. NASCAR didn't do as well.

John

[Timesink]

Does anyone find a basic flaw in the argument that a spacewalk in ZERO GRAVITY is going to damage tiles?

No. To say nothing for the fact that there are no handles on the underside of the shuttle, and thus any spacewalking astronaut stood a very good chance of simply floating off into space.

[r9etb]

Does anyone find a basic flaw in the argument that a spacewalk in ZERO GRAVITY is going to damage tiles?

For one thing, there are no handholds on the bottom of the Shuttle. Lack of a handhold means that there's no way even to put some sort of repair-goo onto the damaged spot. The slightest pressure will send the astronaut tumbling away. (To see how litte forces make for big tumbles, go find the video from the first two INTELSAT capture attempts during STS-49.)

Second, the hard toe of an EVA boot could kick a good-sized hole into the tiles -- making things worse instead of better.

Third, the patching compound itself could well make the surrounding tiles more likely to detach, due to ablation or by preventing them from flexing as they're designed to do.

[Eva]

The NASA official on Greta VonSustern's show said that this group of Astronauts had no training in this type of space walk and that it would have been impossible anyway without the mechanical arm to anchor them to the spacecraft.