NASA to Conduct Spacewalk to Mend Shuttle

[Terri]

NASA to Conduct Spacewalk to Mend Shuttle

By MARCIA DUNN
AP
My Way News

NASA said Monday it will send out a spacewalking astronaut to fix two worrisome pieces of filler material protruding from Discovery's belly - a high-stakes operation to repair a problem that could threaten the shuttle during re-entry.

Engineers simply do not know enough about the problem and its consequences to leave it unattended, so the fabric strips will be pulled out or cut Wednesday "to set our minds at rest," said deputy shuttle program manager Wayne Hale.

More (http://apnews.myway.com/article/20050802/D8BNCCCG0.html)

[Old Man]

Isn't the main problem the fact that the craft "flies" up but "falls" back to earth and thus re-entry isn't at "controlled speeds?" Some of you space techies help me out.

If that is the case, the work on the "plane" that private enterprise is working on may be the eventual solution. They may be able to develop a "plane" that can control both exit and re-entry of earth's atmosphere and thus eliminate the huge heat build up.

[TennesseeDave]

<table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr class="standard"><td>Quote </td></tr><tr class="standard"><td class="QUOTE">NASA to Conduct Spacewalk to Mend Shuttle
[/QUOTE]
NASA can ill-afford another disaster so there is likely some degree of paranoia at work here. While every effort should be taken to assure the safety of our astronauts it shouldn't be surprising to see some overreaction to what might otherwise be a minor problem.

[CSchultz]

On the way up the Shuttle is accelerating from 0 to 3000 miles per hour.

On the return trip she is decelerating fron 18,000 miles per hour to a few hundred miles per hour to coast in.

It's &quot;Brakes&quot; are the friction created by &quot;rubbing&quot; across the atmosphere.
If we could slow the shuttle prior to re-entry into the atmosphere I think re-entry would be much safer. But that would require a great deal of fuel and the shuttle cannot carry that much.

Also I have heard that while working on high speed aircraft, special shoes are often worn that will not scuff the plane, as one shoe scuff on a wing can drastically affect the performance by creating drag at such high speeds.

I imagine that these protruding expansion joints could have an enormous effect during a re-entry at these speeds.

[Paul7]

I would like to know why the real reason for these launch failures is never addressed. I paste a report by an ex-NASA expert that says it all; yet, because it is not PC, it is never mentioned.

Environmental Dogma Has Led to the Sacrifice of Fourteen Astronauts
by Hannes Hacker

Now that a dramatic new test has confirmed that a piece of thermal insulation flaking off of space shuttle Columbia's external tank during launch was the most likely cause of its destruction during reentry, the typical second-guessing in the press has focused on NASA engineers, asking: &quot;What did Mission Control know, and when did they know it?&quot;

Somehow, NASA engineers should have guessed about the damage done to Columbia's thermal tiles and pulled an Apollo 13-style rabbit out of their hat. The implication is that they should have been omniscient and omnipotent.


More (http://www.empirepage.com/guesteds/guesteds196.html)

[Terri]

Hi Paul, welcome to the forum.

I've reduced the amount of the article you posted to comply with our copyright policy.

<table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr class="standard"><td>Quote </td></tr><tr class="standard"><td class="QUOTE">5. GOPUSA respects U.S. copyright laws. A small portion of copyrighted articles may be posted for the purpose of discussion. Please limit those postings to 100-150 words and provide a link to the original article. Credit the author and publication in your post. Use the title of the article as it appears at the originating site. Do not post copyrighted images. Post only your own images -- photos you have taken or graphics you have created.[/QUOTE]

[bakedbones]

I think NASA is responding well, albeit late, to the past failures. Poring over the lauch footage frame by frame as they have here, might have saved the last crew. These guys are trained for all types of contingencies ever since Appollo 13, but got too complacent in the latter years of this program. Thorough inspection of launches, rollover inspections and EVAs can keep our brave astonauts safe. If a problem presents itself that is not immediately repairable, the station provides limited refuge while contingencies are explored and materials assembled and delivered. That shuttle should be completely safe by the time it detaches from the station.
God Bless our brave explorers of His mysteries!
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[TennesseeDave]

<table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr class="standard"><td>Quote </td></tr><tr class="standard"><td class="QUOTE">They stopped using Freon, or CFC-11, in order to comply with the 1987 Montreal Protocol,[/QUOTE]
This was also mentioned in a spot of the Fox News Channel. *Apparently, according to their guest, the problem of falling foam did not appear until the use of Freon was halted.

I would think in extraordinary cases like the launch of a Space Shuttle the use of a formerly widely used and still relatively common compound would be considered exempt. Human safety should be the supreme consideration here. It isn't like the shuttle is launched every day, blindly polluting the planet as some enviro-nazis would have us believe.

[thissong]

http://www.gopusa.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/flag17.gif After the last shuttle disaster, I was amazed to learn that the astronauts don't go out and check the craft for damage after they're in orbit. I assumed they had some kind of repair kit to fix damaged tiles. The tiles can handle temperature extremes, but are really pretty fragile. Couldn't some type of rubberized coating be sprayed onto the tiles to protect them during lift-off? At least the most likely areas to sustain damage? Then it would vaporize during re-entry allowing the tiles to dispurse the heat? Just wondering. http://www.gopusa.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/usflag22.gif

[JohnWDurango]

If the NASA officials can't do their job, fire them. There is no excuse for ineptness in this type of an endeavor.

[TennesseeDave]

<table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr class="standard"><td>Quote </td></tr><tr class="standard"><td class="QUOTE">Couldn't some type of rubberized coating be sprayed onto the tiles to protect them during lift-off? At least the most likely areas to sustain damage? [/QUOTE]

I don't know, but think the approach might create more problems with debris. Whatever was sprayed on the tiles would surely burn off.

Would this produced still another flying/burning debris problem during reentry?