What is Digg?154 Comments
- sunshinex, on 10/10/2007, -1/+31I think, this article, needs, more commas. Was it, written, by Captain Kirk?
- netburnr, on 10/10/2007, -3/+23If you can't Duct (tape) it, ***** it.
- bromac, on 10/10/2007, -0/+17They've also had a shuttle with bigger gouges than this NOT come back to earth. And you don't get a do-over. They're erring on the side of caution and safety, as they should be.
- Piedramente, on 10/10/2007, -2/+16This is being overblown by the media. The shuttle has come back safely to earth with bigger gouges than this. I doubt it needs to be repaired.
If they do, it will only be because of the media attention and as practice. - kargur, on 10/10/2007, -0/+10each tile is individually shaped for its location, so you cannot just have a "spare pack" without having a duplicate of every tile on the ship
- OccultVariable, on 10/10/2007, -1/+9"Now NASA has a few choices and none of them are ideal."
What?
Option 2: Fix it.
Oh *****! That sounds catastrophic. I don't understand how this isn't an ideal option. It beats out option 1, which is do ***** nothing, and option 3, which is a waste of money and too perfect for a possibly ironic situation.
The media really is making a big deal out of this. - Piedramente, on 10/10/2007, -1/+8I believe they aren't doing a massive design change because they will be retiring the entire fleet in a few years. With their budget, it just doesn't make sense. This will likely continue until the last of the fleet is grounded.
- DeskFlyer, on 10/10/2007, -3/+10Use some Great Stuff!
- tont0r, on 10/10/2007, -3/+9Yes I am sure no one at NASA thought of that. Thank you, oh wise digger!
- JDoggqx, on 10/10/2007, -0/+6Sounds like they'll probably go with option 1 (ignore it if the ground testing shows no issues), or option 2 (fix it with one of three methods.) I highly doubt the third option (send up discovery by October to rescue) would be used. It seems to me that this damage isn't catastrophic enough to warrant a rescue.
- turnlikeawheel, on 10/10/2007, -0/+5Freeze the Nerf dart to about -100, then hurl it towards your chest at 10,000 km/h. Then you've got an idea of what's happened.
That said, maybe it's time to get some new NASA engineers. - n00blet, on 10/10/2007, -0/+4giant condom + orange fuel tank = done
- listrophy, on 10/10/2007, -1/+5Um. No. This incident and Columbia were *caused* by the same thing, but are in no way the same "type of damage." That's like saying a sharp rock on the freeway shattering a windshield and that same rock puncturing a tire are the same type of damage. Columbia had a thru hole in its Carbon-Carbon (that's amorphous graphite infused with graphite fiber) leading edge. The Endeavour has a chip (albeit a rather large chip) in its silicon heat tiles.
- blankman, on 10/10/2007, -2/+6What's so bad about the repair option? That seems to be the best thing to do of the options they have. Also, I know that I don't know anything about how the shuttle is constructed, but would it be so hard to have taken some extra replacement tiles with them in case something like this happened? If they can fill it with putty or screw a plate to it, why would it be so hard to replace the 2 broken tiles?
- p51d007, on 10/10/2007, -1/+5Why yes I do like ozone holes!
You environmentalist nut cases crack me up. Every year it is the ozone hole this and the ozone hole that.
It's called a CYCLE. in the winter, the hole over the north pole changes. In the summer it changes again.
"Scientist" have already determined that CFC's DO NOT damage the ozone. Typical crap that EPA types
come out with. Why do you think the world is starting to have another epidemic of malaria? Because we
"can't" use DDT anymore. And even after they determined that DDT isn't as bad as they once thought,
no one makes it anymore. Same with plain old freon. Thanks to idiots who want us to all live in a cave
and sing kum-by-yah (spelled wrong ON PURPOSE) the shuttle can be damaged. But...but...we saved the
environment. What a bunch of crap! - legendxx, on 10/10/2007, -2/+6***** yourself
- ploop, on 10/10/2007, -0/+4I've definitely used duct tape for ducting. As long as you're not dealing with positive pressure over long periods of time, it works just fine.
- CalipsoII, on 10/10/2007, -1/+5Ever thought that maybe "retiling" the bottom of the Shuttle in zero-gravity wearing oversized oven mitts probably not so ez?
- jamesshuang, on 10/10/2007, -0/+4That seems sketchy, the "fire paste" might be able to withstand a torch like that, but reentry requires orders of magnitude higher heat dissipation. I remember my friend in aerospace engineering showing me this equation, which placed the heat dissipation of a 1 cm^2 surface area at the front of a vehicle traveling at Mach 3 at 20,000 ft at around.... 3 million watts. The shuttle reenters at Mach 18 (albeit with much higher altitude), but sill the heat dissipation required is absolutely INSANELY high...
- Narty, on 10/10/2007, -0/+4If it was really such a big deal, they'd bolt some tiles on there.
AND If they really needed a rescue, wouldn't they send a Soyuz up there before a shuttle? - tuxthepenguin, on 10/10/2007, -0/+4In the event that they launch Discovery for a Rescue Mission, it would be the end of the career for the Shuttle and the ISS. I HIGHLY doubt they will ever do this.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STS-3xx - OfF3nSiV3, on 10/10/2007, -2/+5i think NASA should have already fixed the foam problem during launch a long time ago
add some extra layer of protection just for launch for example - kamikaze87, on 10/10/2007, -1/+4Yeah, what he said.
- FeartheKnighted, on 10/10/2007, -3/+6damn you are dumb
- bromac, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3FAIL!
- 0xbaadf00d, on 10/10/2007, -3/+6The stuff never used to fall off. It is because environmentalists had a problem with the old foam. Now they use enviro-friendly foam and it falls off all the time.
- Gustomucho, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3Reading the article, I don't understand why they don't do Option 2, and shut up already. They know they have problems with foam, they know there would be a risk the thing would fall off, that is why they bring "the patch up" kit. Just stay in orbit a bit longer, repair and come back.
Option 1 : If something burns you can be sure Nasa will be held responsible for doing nothing, UNLESS 0.00% risk for burning revealed in test.
Option 2 : Only viable option
Option 3 : Worst idea. - camaroz06, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3its a frozen piece of foam traveling pretty damn fast. When NASA tested the foam strike on Columbia they had to launch it out of an air cannon to get a similar impact.
- jspayne, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3Actually, this is a problem with the shuttle's crappy design - notice how each tile is numbered? Each tile has a unique size, shape and curvature.
- bromac, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2What if the repair doesn't provide a 0.00% risk of burning?
Option 3 isn't the worst idea, it's the WORST CASE SCENARIO idea. - gordeaoux, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2Also, more – dashes.
"Now, with news of the incident known around the world, NASA now must decide whether the crew should fly home on a damaged shuttle — teacher-turned-astronaut Barbara Morgan is on board" - wbagdon, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2Duct tape anyone?
- FeartheKnighted, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2my thoughts all along.
- Greatn3ss, on 10/10/2007, -3/+5get my suit, i'm going up there.
- bromac, on 10/10/2007, -1/+3Because it's hard to do anything in zero gravity in a spacesuit that's bulkier than a mascot costume.
- Chaseb, on 10/10/2007, -3/+5This article reads like it was written by a twelve year old.
- carve, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2None of the fixes are very effective- they're merely better than nothing (unless they mess it up even worse while trying to fix it- those tiles are fragile)
- ploop, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2If memory serves, cyanoacrylates aren't that stable under strange thermal conditions.
- turpenine, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2just to clarify, i am pretty sure he is joking.
- prisoner24601, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2Anyone know what happened to the "space cannon" idea that DARPA had? Where you could "shoot" a relatively small payload (maybe the size of a basketball) into space. I heard it was planned for tiny satellites and also these "what if we need to send some specific tool or supplies up to a shuttle or the ISS?" situations. Too bad they don't have that ready now, just machine a couple of replacement tiles and shoot them up.
- genericwhiteguy, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2I wasn't convinced until you wrote "*****" for the sixth time. However the seventh one put it over the top-- you, sir, belong on a debate team.
- pineappleclock, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2Leave the shuttle up there and use it as a counterweight for a space elevator, and then instruct the crew to have drunken space orgies and enjoy their last moments of life, then shoot missles at the hubble telescope and invade Russia
- jhails, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2Whatever they do, they should make sure they have head cams and open mikes for all on board. The live feed should be streamed to the web.
- Veretax, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2Quick someone suit up Andy Griffith and fuel up Salvage I !
- genericwhiteguy, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1It's actually a bit counter-intuitive, but a lighter object can actually cause more damage. When the foam falls off during launch, it has less inertia and slows down very quickly. This means that since the shuttle is traveling very fast, the foam hits the shuttle at a higher relative speed and can cause more damage. Try throwing an empty styrofoam cup-- it slows down quickly.
- inactive, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Better, use Russian craft for rescue and dump that shuttle into the sea where it belongs.
The manned space program is a useless political gesture that few care about.
The unmanned program has generated 99% of all useful science in any case and should be funded first.
In any case 90% of NASA's budget should go into the study of comet / asteroid defense instead of putting monkeys on the Moon and Mars. - inactive, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1"or by screwing on a plate over the damage."
Yeah, good luck with that. Screws require pressure against it and the worker would just float back in space. Even they could push on the screw, the torque would spin them off into space. - BangSplat, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Static......Static...........Static.......Uh is it hot in hear or is it me?........Static.........
- humperdeath, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1One of those guys just has to keep their finger in the hole during re-entry.
- drkmirror, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1They can't each tile is unique.
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