Debris strikes Space Shuttle...

[mikey23545]

Breaking news on TV...HD video onboard the Shuttle shows debris striking the underside as it reached Mach 3...

[googlegoogle]

http://news.google.com/news?rlz=1C1G...N&hl=en&tab=wn

[Donger]

Originally Posted by mikey23545

Actually, it has been insulating foam falling off of the main tank that has caused disaster in the past...not ice...

Yes, I know. My point was about having the crew vehicle above all the crap falling off, be it ice or foam.

[orange]

Originally Posted by mikey23545

Actually, they carry a tile repair kit on board now. Of course it's never been tried before.

Tests in Space on Repairing Shuttle Tiles


By JOHN SCHWARTZ
Published: March 21, 2008

Two NASA astronauts left the International Space Station on Thursday evening to test techniques for repairing delicate shuttle tiles with a kind of orbital spackle.

NASA has been looking for ways to repair the tiles and panels, which protect the shuttle from the heat of re-entry, since the loss of the shuttle Columbia and its crew in 2003.

Several techniques have been developed. This test used what mission managers called a “goo gun”; it is formally known as a tile repair ablator dispenser.

During the tile repair demonstration, the astronauts filled a series of neat holes and rough gouges. The results will be examined upon the shuttle’s return.

Ginger Kerrick, the station flight director, said in a briefing on Thursday that before NASA could rely on the material chosen for the task, it must be convinced that it acts as it should and that the applicator does its job properly.

Mission managers have said repeatedly that they already have confidence in the material and the applicator. The technique has been tested both in vacuum chambers and under the punishing temperature extremes found in space.

But they could not duplicate the microgravity environment of space, aside from brief bits of time spent in steep descent in specially equipped airplanes. So this experiment will show whether the lack of gravity impairs the putty’s performance.

Zebulon C. Scoville, the lead spacewalk planner for this mission, said the open question concerned bubbles that could occur as the material was laid and began to set.

“In zero gravity, are those bubbles going to rise to the surface?” Mr. Scoville said at a briefing for reporters, “Or are they going to act more like a bread loaf as it bakes, with the gas expanding in the material and being evenly distributed bubbles that then cause the surface to rise up over the top?”

A repair that leaves the putty bulging over the top of the tile could be worse than a shallow gouge, he said, because it can disrupt the flow of superheated gas over the bottom of the shuttle and cause uneven heating downstream of the bump.

The trip outside for Maj. Robert L. Behnken of the Air Force and Capt. Michael J. Foreman of the Navy began with a different task: replacing a circuit breaker that routes power to one of the four gyroscopes that help maintain the orbiting laboratory’s attitude.

But the main event was the work of Captain Foreman, who was hailed as “Mr. Goo” by his colleagues; they also compared him to Rembrandt and called him “grout and tile specialist.” To the last, he replied, “hope we don’t need one.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/21/sc...21shuttle.html

[Donger]

Originally Posted by FAX

A tile repair kit?

FAX

Yes. They will scan the belly of Endeavour thoroughly (they do every mission since Columbia) and they do have a repair kit. It would require a really fun spacewalk and has never been tested in orbit.

Of course, they are going to the ISS anyway.

[Donger]

Originally Posted by orange

Tests in Space on Repairing Shuttle Tiles


By JOHN SCHWARTZ
Published: March 21, 2008

Two NASA astronauts left the International Space Station on Thursday evening to test techniques for repairing delicate shuttle tiles with a kind of orbital spackle.

NASA has been looking for ways to repair the tiles and panels, which protect the shuttle from the heat of re-entry, since the loss of the shuttle Columbia and its crew in 2003.

Several techniques have been developed. This test used what mission managers called a “goo gun”; it is formally known as a tile repair ablator dispenser.

During the tile repair demonstration, the astronauts filled a series of neat holes and rough gouges. The results will be examined upon the shuttle’s return.

Ginger Kerrick, the station flight director, said in a briefing on Thursday that before NASA could rely on the material chosen for the task, it must be convinced that it acts as it should and that the applicator does its job properly.

Mission managers have said repeatedly that they already have confidence in the material and the applicator. The technique has been tested both in vacuum chambers and under the punishing temperature extremes found in space.

But they could not duplicate the microgravity environment of space, aside from brief bits of time spent in steep descent in specially equipped airplanes. So this experiment will show whether the lack of gravity impairs the putty’s performance.

Zebulon C. Scoville, the lead spacewalk planner for this mission, said the open question concerned bubbles that could occur as the material was laid and began to set.

“In zero gravity, are those bubbles going to rise to the surface?” Mr. Scoville said at a briefing for reporters, “Or are they going to act more like a bread loaf as it bakes, with the gas expanding in the material and being evenly distributed bubbles that then cause the surface to rise up over the top?”

A repair that leaves the putty bulging over the top of the tile could be worse than a shallow gouge, he said, because it can disrupt the flow of superheated gas over the bottom of the shuttle and cause uneven heating downstream of the bump.

The trip outside for Maj. Robert L. Behnken of the Air Force and Capt. Michael J. Foreman of the Navy began with a different task: replacing a circuit breaker that routes power to one of the four gyroscopes that help maintain the orbiting laboratory’s attitude.

But the main event was the work of Captain Foreman, who was hailed as “Mr. Goo” by his colleagues; they also compared him to Rembrandt and called him “grout and tile specialist.” To the last, he replied, “hope we don’t need one.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/21/sc...21shuttle.html

Huh. I thought that was canceled.

[FAX]

Originally Posted by frazod

I'm sorry, but they've been launching these goddamn things for nearly 30 years, you'd think at some point they'd work the bugs out.

No wonder we've never gone back to the moon. I wouldn't trust these ****ers to get me safely to Georgia.

They would be good at some stuff, though, Mr. frazod. Like say ... demolition.

Guys ... do they know what this "debris" was? Was it ice? Foam? Particle ray? Did they collide with a meteor?

FAX

["Bob" Dobbs]

Originally Posted by FAX

They would be good at some stuff, though, Mr. frazod. Like say ... demolition.

Guys ... do they know what this "debris" was? Was it ice? Foam? Particle ray? Did they collide with a meteor?

FAX

I'd think foam would be the safe assumption.

[2112]

They should discontinue using that piece of garbage. bust out the old Saturn rockets out of moth balls. they were much more reliable.

["Bob" Dobbs]

Aren't there only a few missions left in the STS series?

[Donger]

Originally Posted by SEKChiefsFan

Aren't there only a few missions left in the STS series?

Yes. There are seven more scheduled after this one.

["Bob" Dobbs]

It will be nice to have space vehicles that aren't the cream of 70's-80's technology.

[Donger]

Originally Posted by SEKChiefsFan

It will be nice to have space vehicles that aren't the cream of 70's-80's technology.

Constellation is going to be a nice bird.

[Donger]

But the mood was dampened somewhat when NASA managers watched the launch video.

Several pieces of foam insulation came off the external fuel tank during liftoff, and the shuttle was hit two or three times, said Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA's space operations chief. Some scuff marks were spotted on the belly, but that probably is coating loss and considered minor, he said.

Engineers immediately began reviewing all the launch video, standard procedure ever since flights resumed following the Columbia disaster. Gerstenmaier said zoom-in photos will be taken of the entire shuttle right before it docks with the space station Friday, to ascertain whether the shuttle suffered any serious damage.

"The bottom line is we saw some stuff," said Mike Moses, chairman of the mission management team. "Some of it doesn't concern us. Some of it you just can't really speculate on right now. But we have the tools in front of us and the processes in front of us to go clear this vehicle for entry" in 16 days.

["Bob" Dobbs]

Donger, I haven't kept up like I used to, but isn't the next program kinda a redesign of Apollo/Saturn?

[2112]

Originally Posted by SEKChiefsFan

Donger, I haven't kept up like I used to, but isn't the next program kinda a redesign of Apollo/Saturn?

Yes

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/co...ain/index.html