[Eva]

No, you're wrong, the problem was that even with training the walk would have been impossible without the mechanical arm to anchor the astronaut to the underside of the space craft. The arm was not on board because the tests that they were performing did not involve going outside the spacecraft.

It was also impossible to hook up with the space station because they were in an entirely different orbit. And the idea of sending up a second craft would have been nearly impossible because they did not have a second craft near ready to launch and even if they did they do not have the capabilities to control two vehicles at once. The NASA said that despite all this, they probably would have tried if they had known the extent of the damage to the Columbia.

[Mamzelle]

If the shuttle wasn't ready, perhaps the Russians could have been, at least enough to send in some life support...as for what Nasa knew, I'd like to know what pictures they tried to take from the ground/satellite with the military capability.

[VRWC_minion]

No, you're wrong

Sorry, you are wrong because you misread what I wrote. My objection went soley to the excuse that the astronaunts had no training in extra vehicular. That is not relevant because if training were the sole factor it could have been overcome either via ground based instructions or having seven shots at getting it right.

If you want to make the case that it was physically impossible due to lack of equipment or materials for repair then fine but lack of training is no reason to avoid an attempt.

[supercat]

No, you're wrong, the problem was that even with training the walk would have been impossible without the mechanical arm to anchor the astronaut to the underside of the space craft. The arm was not on board because the tests that they were performing did not involve going outside the spacecraft.

If they could get into the cargo pay (even if it necessitated venting the cabin), couldn't they have used a hundred or so feet of rope or cable (electrical or otherwise) to make a really crude tether (tie one end to one side of the cargo bay, walk the rest of the spool/bundle to the other end, and throw the cable out; if done right, the cable should loop back to over the cargo bay. Tie it off, then use that as an anchor point for a sliding cable which can then be used as a launching point for another cable.

Nowhere near as good as proper EVA gear, but I would think something could be made to work.

Of course, there would be substantial risks with such an operation; unless they're smaller than the risks of doing nothing, it's not worth throwing the mission out the window to do such things.