Atlantis Is Damaged!!!

[interstellar]

news confrence @ http://www.squidoo.com/interstellaryeller

[acropolite]

Ouch, sounds like it's not all that serious though.

[Ric]

It will be interesting to see what further investigation reveals.

Hope they don't cancel the rest of the mission.

[dpastern]

I'd be more worried about them getting back to Earth safely...

Dave

[erick]

Nobody panic now! They will fix Hubble, then worry about the minor dings.

[dpastern]

Not so much panic, but cautious. That shuttle gets some serious temperature on re-entry, you don't want to really be losing heat tiles. Hopefully, they're only a small enough area, in a non critical area and will not present any real issues.

The astronauts had done some imaging for mission control but the shots weren't clear enough and they're going to use the remote arm to do some more imaging of the affected area. Mission management are going to make a decision tomorrow. NASA has a 2nd shuttle and crew ready go for this mission, due to the amount of debris in the hubble geo stationery orbit location, which could possibly damage Atlantis (heat tiles loss aside).

Dave

[Jen]

:eyepop::eyepop: hope they can fix it :thumbsup:

[marki]

Lets hope they all get back in one piece. The shuttle certainly has had its day and I hope the new ships are a fair bit more robust in service.

Mark

[dpastern]

I don't really think the shuttle is such an old design, I think it's more the truth in reality of how difficult our atmosphere is to re-enter.

Dave

[astroron]

I know that the Shuttle does not get launched once a month as was the aim when it was designed,but to have over 125 launches with only two losses (even though two losses is two to many) is a fantastic achievement.
Who in the future is going to say that the next fleet of craft are going to be any more reliable.
I think the biggest problem for the Shuttle has been Human Error.
I think overall it has been a very robust space craft and I think the space launch industry will miss it a great deal when it goes out of service.
I would not be surprised if it gets an extension of service for another couple of years till the next vehicle comes on line.:thumbsup:

[Ric]

They were talking about the Hubble mission on the news tonight but there was no mention about the damaged tiles.

Cheers

[marki]

Ron I agree with most of what you have said however the original shuttle envisioned by NASA was not the one they ended up with. The fact that it has to launch strapped to the side of the rockets rather then on top of them is the real problem. I know there are limitations to what we can do with materials so the best course of action would be to minimise the risk of damage to the fragile parts such as heat tiles. I think under the current climate (Obama) another disaster would just about spell the end of manned filight from the US anyway. Personally I cannot wait to see the shuttle retire and be replaced with another craft.

David, perhaps one day we will have the technology to power these machines right back to the ground but right now you are dead right. They are virtually a dead spacecraft at the mercy of the atomosphere. Hopefully the new ships will be a little better at avoiding damage on lift off.



Mark

[Chippy]

It IS an "old" design - not much debating that... but overall a very good one. The design originated in the early 70's if not before. I lived in the USA in 1972, and they already had models of it (that looked exactly like the shuttles of today). Obviously some mods and improvements have been made, but the basic design is the same.

I also doubt they will extend its service life for another two years either. I'm sure they'd like to, but the cost is very high, and NASA needs every dollar to develop the replacement or else that will fall behind schedule. So unless they get an injection of funds (unlikely) it won't happen. Hope I'm wrong though!

[dpastern]

Just because it's old, doesn't mean it's bad. First and foremost, the shuttle is a glider, this saves on heavy fuel payloads and makes the shuttle more responsive. It also makes it far cheaper to send it into space. It's a solid, good design. Entering the Earth at 48km/sec or faster is never going to be easy.

Dave

[marki]

Dave, thats the thing that really needs to be achieved, controlled re-entry that does not require the craft to experience 48m/s. I am not saying it's bad because it is an old design, I am saying it needs to be updated to something a bit safer because we can. The shuttle has done great work but its design and running costs have confined space travel to low earth orbit. It's time to move on.

Mark

[leinad]

Go Atlantis :D
http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/news_space_thewritestuff/2009/05/launchpad-flame-trench-damaged-by-space-shuttle-again.html

If it ended being a post rescue mission, and Endeavour launches from 39B, what would be likely ?

a) They repair Atlantis? A historical event.
b) They evacuate Atlantis? Spaceflight historical event.
c) Would they remotely crash and burn the shuttle?
d) Dock it with ISS and repair her?

How are they going to rescue the astronauts and bring em home, safely?
:doh:

[Octane]

Personally, I think I'll be upset when they retire this beautiful craft.

Think about it, how long ago it was designed, yet, it /still/ looks futuristic. Kudos to the designers and engineers. The craft is a veritable beast.

Watch this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwfsFtpACFw

Sounds of engine beginning to whir at 3:55. 3:58: "Oh, wow, look at that".

Regards,
Humayun

[kinetic]

Humayun, me too!

I can still remember an interview I saw once where a journalist asked
Max Faget, the designer of the shuttle, if he ever thought they
would lose a ship in a failure, as part of the investigation into the
loss of Challenger.
Tears welled up in his eyes as he said something like he knew they
might lose one, but the entire team of NASA from the astronauts down
never once wanted a failure to stop the program.

Steve