rax8@phx.mcd.mot.com (Steve Roberson ) (03/12/91)
How do they find the weight and center of gravity of an orbiter? I assume that they don't hang it on a string like a model rocket. :-) Is there a good book available on shuttle processing? I enjoy reading the processing updates and it would be nice to know just what each item involves. There are so many things that the media doesn't cover. Remember the thread on the lack of pictures of the carrier aircraft crane? I've looked for a source on processing every time I've been to a NASA facility and never seen anything above the comic book level. Steve Roberson rax8@phx.mcd.mot.com
shafer@skipper.dfrf.nasa.gov (Mary Shafer) (03/12/91)
In article <14695@mcdphx.phx.mcd.mot.com> rax8@phx.mcd.mot.com (Steve Roberson ) writes:
How do they find the weight and center of gravity of an orbiter? I assume
that they don't hang it on a string like a model rocket. :-)
The original weight and balance was done in the standard manner, with
scales under the gear. It's pretty easy and we do it routinely for
all our aircraft. We do hang and swing small aircraft, since they're
too light for the usual scales. About the biggest we can do is the
F-8.
The procedure is to hang and swing or weigh the vehicle initially and
then do the subsequent modifications analytically. If you know the
inertial properties of the element, it's easy. At one time I set up a
spreadsheet to do the weight and balance on the airplane I was working
on. Every now and then we take the vehicle back and re-weigh it. If
the re-weighing numbers are close, we don't have to redo the weight
and balance.
I think that they used portable scales for the orbiters, rather than
the AFFTC weight and balance hangar, although I believe that
Enterprise went down there once.
Is there a good book available on shuttle processing? I enjoy
reading the processing updates and it would be nice to know just
what each item involves. There are so many things that the media
doesn't cover. Remember the thread on the lack of pictures of the
carrier aircraft crane? I've looked for a source on processing
every time I've been to a NASA facility and never seen anything
above the comic book level.
It's a lot like aircraft maintainence, in that it's either grossly
simplified or too detailed and jargon-y to be believed.
What lack of pictures of the mate-demate device? There are an
incredible number of these around.
--
Mary Shafer shafer@skipper.dfrf.nasa.gov ames!skipper.dfrf.nasa.gov!shafer
NASA Ames Dryden Flight Research Facility, Edwards, CA
Of course I don't speak for NASA
"A MiG at your six is better than no MiG at all"--Unknown US fighter pilot