Re: Orbital Boom Sensor System (OBSS) questions...

From: Jorge R. Frank (jrfrank_at_ibm-pc.borg)
Date: 01/09/05 

Date: 09 Jan 2005 17:37:40 GMT

Reed Snellenberger <rsnellenberger@houston.rr.com> wrote in
news:xwZDd.17979$q4.1132@fe1.texas.rr.com:

> Jorge R. Frank wrote:
>> Reed Snellenberger wrote:
>>
>>
>>>A few questions about the tile-scanning procedure:
>>>
>>>Are the astronauts going to have to hand-fly the scan of the
>>>orbiter's belly, or has this been automated? I assume that they'll
>>>want to dock the OBSS and move it into initial position by hand...
>>
>> Last I heard, the scan was hand-flown and was planned to be so for at
>> least the early flights. That could have changed, though.
>>
>
> Ugh... sounds like a pretty boring job... and hard on the hands,
> unless they can just pre-set a "lateral 50 feet" motion and only
> provide inputs when they reach the end of a motion.

It's not that bad, actually, due to limitations in the software: depth
analysis is not currently possible while the boom is moving. So the scan is
not continuous; it's a series of move-stop-analyze steps. The arm operator
can rest his hands while the boom is stopped. 

-- 
JRF
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