From: J Corbally (icorb@indigo.ie)
Date: Sun Feb 02 2003 - 14:18:14 MST
These are sad days for space travel and humanity....
>Date: Sat, 01 Feb 2003 15:01:42 -0800
>From: Ken Clements <Ken@innovation-on-demand.com>
>Subject: Re: shuttle breaks up on re-entry
>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.
I've been thinking something like that as a task for ISS. Visual data from
multiple angles is analyzed after take off. If any problems are
identified, these are communicated to the crew. The decision is made as to
whether the suspected problem is serious or not. If it's deemed to be,
they rendevous with ISS for inspection and repairs. Not sure whether this
would make much difference, but in this situation it may have, given what's
been determined thus far.
>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
Remembering the brave crew of Columbia.
James....
"If you can't take a little bloody nose, maybe you ought to go back home and
crawl under your bed. It's not safe out here. It's wondrous, with treasures
to satiate desires both subtle and gross. But it's not for the timid."
-Q, Star Trek:TNG episode 'Q Who'
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