Re: Orbiter can save itself!

JRS: In article <1139337224.278797.45330@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
dated Tue, 7 Feb 2006 10:33:44 remote, seen in news:sci.space.shuttle,
mmaker@xxxxxxxxxxx posted :

And who's going to authorise bringing a damaged shuttle back to Earth
on computer control and risk having it break up over a populated area?

Is there any approach path to KSC which wouldn't have a significant
risk of dumping wreckage (or the entire shuttle if the re-entry damage
wasn't enough to destroy it but was enough to prevent it landing) into
a populated area? Best I can think of would be bringing it to KSC from
the south over Central America, which still means crossing Florida with
a shuttle which might not want to fly by that point.

Central America is populated too; but I suppose you don't count
foreigners.

Any big runway on or near the East Coast of any ocean can be a
candidate.


ISTM that the Shuttle should have been designed for full autoland, but
with the connection between computer and landing gear being by an
electric cable or plug, always flown but normally unconnected, and
highly visible in both stowed and fitted positions from flight deck
seating.

Or designed to launch and land with zero crew and up to about 7
passengers, stowed as cargo in individual well-padded capsules.

--
© John Stockton, Surrey, UK. ?@merlyn.demon.co.uk Turnpike v4.00 MIME. ©
Web <URL:http://www.merlyn.demon.co.uk/> - FAQqish topics, acronyms & links;
Astro stuff via astron-1.htm, gravity0.htm ; quotings.htm, pascal.htm, etc.
No Encoding. Quotes before replies. Snip well. Write clearly. Don't Mail News.
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: NASAs New Lesson from Space
    ... Shun risk, and yet passively persist in a state of risk--howsoever 'calculated'. ... While procrastination continues to dog necessary repairs for Hubble, even as essential weather satellites are on the verge of going out of commission with nothing on the agenda to replace them, somehow, somewhere in the administration of the Space Program, there is deemed to be room on the Shuttle for another frivolous, trivial, patently asinine "School Teacher in Space" mission--but no room in the crew for a pair of crack space-ship mechanics, let alone an engineer or two, to be on board for every mission, thoroughly trained and equipped for just such an exigency as this, which occurred with the last Kaptain Kangaroo and Romper Room in Space mission which ended in catastrophe--as only such a mission is apparently destined to do. ... "The chairman of the mission management team, John Shannon, said Johnson Space Center's engineering group in Houston wanted to proceed with the repairs. ...
    (sci.physics)
  • Re: NASA Astronaut on Columbia Repair (and others)
    ... The problem in getting such ventures funded tends to be risk, ... conjunction with a full quantitative risk assessment of the shuttle ... independent technical authority in conjunction with a full quantitative ... · Develop and maintain technical standards for all Space Shuttle ...
    (sci.space.history)
  • Re: Bush cancels Hubble telescope rescue mission
    ... :>manned missions then we shouldn't flinch at not ding the HST repair due to ... There will ALWAYS be risk. ... mission has to be done before they lose enough more gyros ... and availability challenges in the overall Shuttle program. ...
    (sci.space.policy)
  • Re: Why I Could Care Less What the Media Says about Space
    ... To read and listen to the coverage of the ongoing mission of Space Shuttle Discovery, you would think NASA’s mission team have taken careless risks with the lives of the seven astronauts who went into space last Tuesday. ... the only acceptable thing to do now is retire the shuttle program immediately and wait for the divine arrival of the next generation of spacecraft. ... Risk is essential to fuel the economic engine of our nation. ... The technical response to the Columbia accident led to a dramatic reduction in the amount of debris striking this shuttle during launch. ...
    (sci.space.shuttle)
  • Re: Bush cancels Hubble telescope rescue mission
    ... >manned missions then we shouldn't flinch at not ding the HST repair due to ... There will ALWAYS be risk. ... and availability challenges in the overall Shuttle program. ... we have a major space station ...
    (sci.space.policy)
Quantcast