sjb (11/11/82)
Here is a day by day flight plan for STS-5: Day 1: Columbia lifts off pad 39A at 0719 EST on 11 November, 1982. One hour after lift off, Vance Brand opens the cargo bay doors to dissipate the collected heat. 6.5 hours after launch, a 90 minute countdown is started, after which a SBS satellite is ejected. 45 minutes after that, with the shuttle turned away, a motor ignites and takes it up into geosynchronous orbit. Day 2: 33 hours after lift off, a Canadian Telsat satellite is ejected, following another 90 minutes countdown. Again, 45 minutes later, a motor ignites to take it to geosynchronous orbit. After this, Columbia's starboard side is turned to the sun and left there for 47 hours. Day 3: Nothing special is planned. Systems will be checked, and there is time to launch a satellite if one couldn't be launched on time. Day 4: William Lenoir and Joseph Allen, mission specialists, don spacesuits and take a 3.5 hour spacewalk in the cargo bay. Following this, an engine left in the cold for two days will be test fired, and the Columbia will be placed nose to the sun for 19 hours. Day 5: Systems are checked for reentry. Day 6: After the 81st orbit, the cargo bay doors are closed and Columbia reenters the atmosphere, landing at EAFB at 0625 Pacific time (yes, I know I said 0725 before, but this article said 0625)
gary (11/11/82)
This may be a dumb question, but how does opening the doors dissipate
heat? I thought you needed something to transfer heat TO, i.e. matter.
Is it that space isn't a perfect vacuum, or that they are still in some
atmosphere after 1 hour?
not afraid to name my sign,
"slippery when wet"halle1 (11/15/82)
The heat is dissipated not by conduction but by radiation. Opening the doors allows the heat to be radiated out into the near absolute zero environment. If the doors are closed, only that energy which has conducted through the insulated doors can escape. Even if the doors were a thin metal sheet, so that conduction were not a problem, merely their being there causes radiation from inner surfaces to be effectively cut in half.