shuttle disaster: view of tile damage

From: avatar (avatar@renegadeclothing.com.au)
Date: Sun Feb 09 2003 - 17:58:30 MST

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    from space.com

    (guess my girlfriend's suggestion of a robot camera with jets was a good guess after all...)

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    One system, the AERCam-SPRINT has already proven its robotic right stuff. It flew on STS-87 in 1997.

    AERCam -- short for Autonomous Extra-vehicular Robotic Camera -- is a small, hand deployed and captured remote controled inspection tool. It carries its own avionics and nitrogen-gas propulsion. The surface of the ball-shaped robot is covered with cushions to prevent damage in case of collisions with other space hardware. It weighs a little less than 38 pounds (17 kilograms), and is outfitted with two cameras, position lights and a floodlight. The AERCam is designed to fly very slowly - just less than one-quarter of a foot per second.

    During an STS-87 space walk, astronaut Winston Scott released the oversized soccer ball of a robot. It flew freely within the shuttle's cargo bay for about one-half hour. Meanwhile, shuttle pilot Steve Lindsey from the space plane's aft flight deck using a hand controller, two laptop computers and a window-mounted antenna remotely controlled the free-flyer.

    External views of shuttle

    David Akin, a leading space robotic expert at the University of Maryland in College Park, said AERCam "demonstrated that free-flying cameras can be easily controlled and provide wonderful external views of the space shuttle."

    Although its flight was restricted to just above the cargo bay, Akin told SPACE.com , feasibility studies have been done by NASA to fly AERCam underneath the vehicle to image tiles.

    "There are concerns about loss of signal.but it is possible to use orbital dynamics effects to put the vehicle in a 'free orbit' of the orbiter at a distance of a couple of hundred feet," Akin said.

    "With some modifications to the orbiter communications systems, or better placement of dedicated antennas, it should be possible to do remotely-controlled close inspections of the tiles," Akin said.

    AERCam could show other types of external damage too, Akin said.

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