Re: Foam still a key concern for shuttle launch

On 16 Aug 2006 10:19:39 -0700, in a place far, far away, "Eric Chomko"
<pne.chomko@xxxxxxxxxxx> made the phosphor on my monitor glow in such
a way as to indicate that:

What if they decide to extend the STS program
due to success and the lack of CEV or its equivalent being ready? Does
THAT have any bearing on your inductive analysis?

Then they'll fly it a little longer. Still doesn't change the
outcome.

The question about what to do WRT shuttle foam tiles has basically
three answers:

1) do nothing about it and leave it as is and hope for the best
2) keep working on it as a means to improve upon it, but keep flying
3) ground the fleet

Okay, clearly we don't want option 3).

The "columbiaaccidentinvestigation" loon does.

I believe you are proposing 1).
Option 2) has several degrees, everything from doing a minimal amount
up to spending lots of time and money on it. Shouldn't 2) be done with
some at some sort of happy medium?

We've been doing it, long past the point of diminishing returns.

"columbiaaccidentloon" believes that astronauts' lives have infinite
value. That's one of the reasons he's a loon.

I won't go there. But you seem to fail to account for the cost in both
time and money of the foam fixes (i.e. provided no numbers).

If the foam fixes are holding up the program, they cost ten million
dollars per day. If not, they cost what they cost, but it's hard to
imagine that they're worth the expected value of a Shuttle loss at
this point.

But another shuttle loss would surely end the program.

Not necessarily. Two more certainly, but not necessarily one. The
chances of either, at this point (at least due to foam) are very
small.
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Foam still a key concern for shuttle launch
    ... Rand Simberg wrote: ... The question about what to do WRT shuttle foam tiles has basically ... But you seem to fail to account for the cost in both ... But another shuttle loss would surely end the program. ...
    (sci.space.policy)
  • Re: Foam still a key concern for shuttle launch
    ... loss) than the cost, given that we're only going to fly another ... sixteen missions or so. ... But you seem to fail to account for the cost in both ... If the foam fixes are holding up the program, ...
    (sci.space.policy)