Re: What Happened to the MMU?

In article <27739$45c34585$927a2cda$28441@xxxxxxxx>,
Jeff Findley <jeff.findley@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
...The SSF program seemed to flip/flop between berthing and docking
the shuttle to the station. Berthing sort of assumed that the shuttle
wouldn't be able to maneuver all that well close to the station, so the plan
was to grab the shuttle with a short robotic arm (or two) and then use the
robotic arm(s) to berth the shuttle to the station. Docking sort of assumes
that you can control the shuttle's velocity and attitude very tightly to
meet the velocity and attitude requirements for docking.

Berthing does have some technical advantages -- much lower impact loads,
much less machinery cluttering up the mating areas (and thus easier
accommodation for, among other things, bigger hatches), and generally
better control of the process -- and so SSF had pretty much settled on it.

And then along came Shuttle-Mir, which required using the Russian docking
system (developed for Buran) that was already in place. After that, it
seemed easier to just keep using that for ISS, and not develop a new
berthing system. Arguably penny wise and pound foolish, but that's the
story of ISS...
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