From: Ken Clements (Ken@innovation-on-demand.com)
Date: Sat Feb 01 2003 - 16:01:42 MST
I watched one of the NASA controllers say something today that is typical
of holding on to old technology too long. He said that they did not bother
to check for tile damage in orbit because there is nothing they can do
about it if there is any damage. This was true 20 years ago when they
designed the shuttle program, but now we have a space station, and vastly
advanced computer and robotic technology. True, no one would be happy
about a shuttle stuck at the station while the procedures to fix it in
space were developed (perhaps as long as a year or two), but it still beats
total loss of the orbiter and the lives of the crew.
Old technology needs to be thrown out from time to time because it always
has the assumptions of the past frozen into its very fabric. Today we
could design small robots who have the job of going out and inspecting the
space craft while in orbit, and fixing a class of problems that could not
have been fixed 20 years ago. Today there is no good reason to send the
payload and crew in the same ship. Computers can fly the current (old)
design just fine without the human crew, and a new smaller and safer space
craft could be designed to carry the humans for linkup in orbit.
Many other possibilities exist; it is time for new thinking.
-Ken
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