[FPSPACE] BBC Horizon "Guide to the Space Shuttle"...could theColumbia have been saved?

Wed Apr 25 18:14:08 EDT 2012

My two cents worth: 

It was incredibly short sighted to send up any Shuttle without an ability to inspect for and repair any damaged or missing tiles the moment we realized that these vehicles routinely loose these tiles during launch.

As I recall, somebody was paid at one time to come up with a feasible repair kit, but failed to deliver on this. And, come on, let's be serious; as many hours as we've spend in space we never came up with the ability to do an inspection??? This could have been done without a spacewalk, with available technology, and without a significant weight constraint. I dare to say that even a High School student could design a system that would weigh less than 10 lbs. and at a cost of under $ 1,000.

It embarrassing how arrogant NASA can be at times.

Regards to all,

David L. Rickman
549 Caribou Road
Asheville, NC  28803
USA 

Follow my progress as I recreate the Soviet Lunniy Korabl spaceship in 1:5 scale at http://lunniykorabl.blogspot.com

-----Original Message-----
From: James E Oberg <jameseoberg at comcast.net>
To: Gunter Krebs <gunter.krebs at skyrocket.de>; fpspace <fpspace at friends-partners.org>
Sent: Wed, Apr 25, 2012 11:37 am
Subject: Re: [FPSPACE] BBC Horizon "Guide to the Space Shuttle"...could theColumbia have been saved?

Thanks for the reminder re the RMS -- so a manual grapple would be required. That has been done before.

Desperate times enable desperate measures.

No active control system would be needed for a cargo pod. Nice, maybe, but necessary, no.

Besides, in this scenario, more than one pod would be under rushed prep at various sites. And more than one might have been launchable in the two weeks [or more, when stretched] before fuel cell cryo ran out.

And run out it would -- the fuel cells would soon go off. But for comm power, send up batteries and portable radios, and for heater power, send up blankets. And flashlights. At that point, it's still a crew rescue challenge, but 'repair' has become impossible.

The airlock would still function without internal power.

Once out the hatch -- That's what the second shuttle would be available for.

Only meant to make the point -- the inexorable time cutoff for Columbia crew on-orbit survival was not nearly as adamantine as first claimed here.

My buddies at the MCC, devastated by the crew's deaths, also were bitterly disappointed that they hadn't been given the chance to DO something. Or to go down swinging.

----- Original Message ----- 

From:   Gunter Krebs 

To: fpspace at friends-partners.org   

Sent: Wednesday, April 25, 2012 7:25   AM

Subject: Re: [FPSPACE] BBC Horizon "Guide   to the Space Shuttle"...could theColumbia have been saved?

That is unfortunately not that simple. 

First,   the make-shift-cargo-craft needed some capabilities to maneuvre near the   Shuttle, so that a rendezvous could be accomplished. The Ariane upper stage is   not capable of doing this. Also, some kind of stabilization would have been   needed to avoid tumbeling, which would make any attempt to catch it futile.   Therefore a spacecraft and not only a "metal box" is needed.

Second,   the STS-107 mission did not carry the CANDARM, so the container could not be   grappled by it. The mssing CANADARM could also not provide a platform for the   Astronauts to grapple the container by hand.

Even if it were possible,   to deliver such a make-shift-cargo-craft, it would not have been able to   replenish the orbiter consumables like the H2/O2 needed for the fuel   cells.

Gunter

2012/4/25 James E Oberg <jeoberg at comcast.net>

Who says it had to dock? Even the simplest payload --     a metal box with grapple fixture -- could have been handled by 'Columbia'     via EVA.

----- Original Message ----- 

From: Anatoly Zak 

To: Untitled       

Sent: Monday, April 23, 2012 6:44       PM

Subject: Re: [FPSPACE] BBC Horizon       "Guide to the Space Shuttle"...could theColumbia have been saved?

Purely speculatively, it is possible to imagine       Progress ship repurposed to carry some hardware to the Shuttle, but       obviously, there was no time to prepare such a mission, especially when       Columbia was not configured to dock.

Anatoly Zak
Creator &       Publisher
http://www.RussianSpaceWeb.com

On 4/23/12       6:48 PM, "Gunter Krebs" <gunter.krebs at skyrocket.de>       wrote:

Unfortunately this scenario was completely         impossible - there was simply no spacecraft available to be launched on         an Ariane towards the crippled Shuttle.

2012/4/23 James E         Oberg <jeoberg at comcast.net>

.... a middle course would be launching life-extension           supplies on an Ariane within two weeks to give time for preparing the           next launch better.

Anything wouyld have been better than doing           nothing.

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