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nasa investigates falling derbis
BillieTheBot
Posts: 8,721 Bot
in General Chat
http://www.theregister.com/2005/07/27/nasa_shuttle_debris/
bummer
The above news report wrote:The space agency says it also looks like the craft hit a bird in the very early stages of its journey to space
bummer
Beep boop. I'm a bot.
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Part of the mission anyway was to use the robotic arm with an extension to check the integrity of the tiles. On the end they have cameras and lasers to check the depth of points of interest.
Watch Nasa TV here http://www.nasa.gov/55644main_NASATV_Windows.asx
Live coverage of the mission, with press conferences when they happen.
Better than shitty media coverage hyping up everything.
no there was tile falling, and bird issues
No tiles fell off, it looks like a 'piece' of a tile came off. Very different than a whole tile. And the bird strike occured just after the tower was cleared at very low speed on the external tank.
Just a tad.
Hopefully they can repair it and get the thing back in. Can it fly unmanned like the Russian one? If so, they can come back in the Soyuz capsule and hte shuttle land itself... much safer.
Jumpin' the gun abit... repairs might not be needed. The data is being collected and analyized and a conclusion formed based on the results.
The shuttle cannot fly unmanned. And I believe the Soyuz capsule holds 3 people max.
Don't forget how fast the thing is travelling when hitting a bird.
In space a tiny fleck of paint has caused damage to previous space shuttles since it's been travelling at 17,000 miles per hour it has a lot of force!!
The external tank hit the bird just after the tower was cleared so the velocity was extremly low = no damage sustained.
Better to stay on the station if it is damaged and wait for rescuse from another one. Ok, mines a what if... but god, don't try to re-enter if its fucked again.
Why have they actually grounded the rest of them? WHY THE HELL EVEN HAVE FOAM ON THE TANK!?! Redesign it or use better insulation... or something. Their the scientists, surley its not just me wo can think of this. Redesigning a tank is better than doing nothing, right? And cheaper than redesigning the shuttle some more. They could cover the insulating foam in something to hold it to the vehicle, a layer of some material.
I still love how the "indestructible" tiles they fired bricks at are murdered by foam. I mean, wtf?
Covering the tank with an extra coating would add too much weight, they even stopped painting it to reduce weight.
The tank WAS redesigned for this flight, and the area of the tank where the foam came from that caused the strike on STS-107 (Columbia's last flight) has been modified and shouldn't cause any more problems.
The tiles were never supposed to be indestructible, you can carve your name in them with a fingernail. They're heat-resistant, which is (obviously) the reason they're there.
The area that was 'murdered' by foam, causing the Columbia accident (I assume that's what you're referring to) was an area where a carbon material was used, instead of tiles.
The piece of foam that struck Columbia on STS-107 weighed about 2 kilos and was about the size of a briefcase. The shuttle was travelling at more than 1000mph at the time, hence the amount of damage.
I'd have thought the reason they're grounded is because the new external tank wasn't supposed to shed large pieces of foam, though I don't know how large the piece that fell off on Tuesday was.
The pen's an urban myth. And I suppose cancer research, amongst other things done in space (that requires people to conduct it) it pointless?
Well thats a disapointment, I always wanted one of those pens.
Anyway, what sort of cancer research needs no gravity?
They do things like growing artificial tumours to experiment on - on earth their shape and size is limited by gravity.
They also do things like materials processing, again purer materials can be developed in microgravity.
The pen does actually exist and you can buy them, but it was developed privately and didn't have $1bn spent on it by NASA (that's the urban myth bit)
I wasnt being entirely serious about the $1bn price tag.
Though I still maintain that given the monumental budget that NASA has the money could be better spent elsewhere.
Size of a breifcase... :shocking: Thats big foam.
Stuff it. Just reinvest the money and buy a ton of Energia launch rockets from the Russians.
I wish I did work for a space agency! Unfortunately I'm just a complete space geek, you can find out most of that stuff from specialist spaceflight sites and books.
I'm inordinately flattered that you thought I might work for a space agency, though (you weren't being sarcastic, right?)
The shuttle system is a design compromise, a decision was taken in the early-to-mid 1970s to implement a cheaper design which would have higher maintenance costs - as we see today - which is the nature of government projects worldwide, as by the time the true cost is realised, there's usually a different government.
Even so, going into space at all is hugely expensive, and I support it because it's what I want to do, though I understand why most people have doubts.
If anyone's interested, the BBC is showing live coverage of Discovery docking with the space station through http://news.bbc.co.uk
Nope!
I mgiht see If I can buy an Energia booster though... time to remorgate the cat.
The Russians would prolly sell you one, if you could come up with the money. If you've got $100m, they'll take you round (though not onto) the moon.
On another Note, are you named after The Motorhead song?
Nah, named after the (admittedly not that good) dance outfit who were (say this all in an Alan Partridge voice) briefly popular in 2003.
The name sounded like a good idea @ the time, but I can't figure out how to change it from the User CP.