gandalf@pro-electric.cts.com (Ken Hollis) (03/02/91)
Greetings and Salutations: From: mmachlis@athena.mit.edu (Matthew A Machlis) Subject: Fuel-line door questions... >Is there any kind of sensor which indicates to the crew or ground >controllers whether or not the doors are closed? Just about everything mechanical on the orbiter has instrumentation of some type, and the doors are no exception. There are two indicators per door for a total of four, that indicate if the door is closed and latched. There are also drives to pull the door closed once it gets close to the close position. >Is there any way they could try to close them manually through an EVA? Yes. They could cycle them and try to help them into the almost closed position, then hopefully the uplock latches would be positioned to pull the door completely shut. Hopefully the tile on the door would not be damaged. This is pure speculation as to how they would try to close the door. The doors are made out of beryllium, the same type of material the old brakes were made out of. The brakes were actually carbon lined beryllium. Of course this whole discussion is no longer applicable since Discovery is rolling back to fix the hinge. Ken Hollis ---- ProLine: gandalf@pro-electric Internet: gandalf@pro-electric.cts.com UUCP: crash!pro-electric!gandalf ARPA: crash!pro-electric!gandalf@nosc.mil
mears@hpindda.cup.hp.com (David Mears) (03/11/91)
Here's a hypothetical. (I'm actually somewhat hesitant to even bring up the subject, as I neither want to jinx anything, nor do I want people to think of me as morbid and write me nasty letters.) What if ... Something were to happen and a shuttle were stranded in orbit. For some reason it can't land. NASA feels that there are two things they could try. One has a very slight chance of saving the crew, but is likely to lose both crew and ship. The other is reasonably guaranteed of saving the ship until some sort of service mission could repair it, but the crew can not survive. What would NASA do? I highly suspect that they would have to try to rescue the crew just because of PR, even if they didn't feel confident. But what should NASA do? What would the crew want NASA to do? What would you want NASA to do? David B. Mears Hewlett-Packard Cupertino CA hplabs!hpda!mears mears@hpinddf.cup.hp.com
stanfiel@testeng1.misemi (Chris Stanfield) (03/15/91)
In article <3330036@hpindda.cup.hp.com> mears@hpindda.cup.hp.com (David Mears) writes: >What if ... Something were to happen and a shuttle were stranded in >orbit. For some reason it can't land. NASA feels that there are >two things they could try. One has a very slight chance of saving >the crew, but is likely to lose both crew and ship. The other is >reasonably guaranteed of saving the ship until some sort of service >mission could repair it, but the crew can not survive. > >What would NASA do? Never mind PR considerations! The shuttle orbiter is just bits of metal, etc., and could be replaced (albeit at a high cost) but the crew are human beings, and as such are irreplacable. If I were on that crew, I would want (nay, expect) NASA to risk their equipment to save my life. Chris Stanfield, Mitel Corporation: E-mail to:- uunet!mitel!testeng1!stanfiel (613) 592 2122 Ext.4960 We do not inherit the world from our parents - we borrow it from our children.