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germanbird writes:
"ArsTechnica has published a story taking a look at NASA's theoretical rescue plan for the space shuttle Columbia. The ambitious yet plausible plan was included as part of the report prepared during the investigation after the shuttle was lost during re-entry. I appreciate the author's perspective and his analysis of things as a sys-admin at Boeing he was much closer to the situation than most of us were. I for one would have liked to see the men and women at NASA given the chance to try to pull this one off, but I'm not sure it would have been worth the risk to the rescue team or even possible given the compressed schedule."
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NASA's Theoretical Rescue Plan for Columbia
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The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
"History is a tool used by politicians to justify their intentions."
-- Ted Koppel
(Score: 4, Interesting) by resignator on Friday February 28 2014, @09:16PM
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle_abort_m odes#Ejection_escape_systems/ [wikipedia.org]
I remember shortly after Challenger there were talks of designing a new shuttle that ejected the entire crew cabin, separating it from the rest of the vehicle. This design would allow for a full abort during ANY part of the flight and a safe return for the crew.
Of course, we are talking about a complete redesign or retrofit of the current space shuttle. Let's hope the next shuttle has a budget for such luxuries. All previous US manned space vehicles had launch escape systems, although none were ever used.
(Score: 1) by BradTheGeek on Friday February 28 2014, @10:07PM
There will be no next shuttle budget. We would rather let China and India and private firms creep forward with space exploration, while we waste our money on pervasive surveillance, military boondoggles, and nearly senseless wars (including terrorism, drugs, etc.)
Space cannot generate enough fear to manipulate the population. Space cannot generate enough corporate money to create a huge lobbying force.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by resignator on Friday February 28 2014, @10:51PM
You do realize a new shuttle is already in the works, right? It also looks like I got my wish for an emergency abort system, too!
http://www.nasa.gov/exploration/systems/mpcv/index .html/ [nasa.gov]
"Orion will serve as the exploration vehicle that will carry the crew to space, provide emergency abort capability, sustain the crew during the space travel, and provide safe re-entry from deep space return velocities." -nasa.gov
"NASA also is making progress with the development of the Space Launch System (SLS) - an advanced heavy-lift rocket that will provide an entirely new national capability for human exploration beyond Earth's orbit" -nasa.gov
Just two days ago, the parachute system designed for Orion passed another hurdle in test that put extra stress on drogue parachutes and simulated a failure. Scrapping the new shuttle is very unlikely at this point since it has already been budgeted for. So cheer up and quit acting like the sky is falling. Space flight will continue into the next century and beyond.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 28 2014, @11:03PM
Don't forget spending trillions to feed our useless eaters while they make more useless eaters for us to feed -- while inviting the rest of the world to dump their useless eaters here for us to feed, too! The votes must be harvested, after all.
(Score: 1) by resignator on Saturday March 01 2014, @12:21AM
It's nice you can write off most of humanity as "eaters". I am guessing you dont identify yourself as one though.
(Score: 1) by paddym on Friday February 28 2014, @11:38PM
If only there were some activities that took place a long time ago in a galaxy far far away that could teach us to combine pervasive surveillance (being able to sense disturbances wherever they occur) military boondoggles (like a giant moon-shaped base), nearly senseless wars (including trade, clones, etc) and space exploration. Maybe we could foresee the effects of suspending our form of government to reduce the influence of lobbyists and put our trust in a single chancellor who could get everyone on the same page. "Space cannot generate enough fear", but fear leads to anger... Ok, I think everyone gets the point.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 02 2014, @06:55PM
How about just having separate vehicles for the crew and payload? The crew could go up in a light, reusable vehicle designed for maneuverability and self-propelled landing capability, which could turn around and fly home at any point. Less fuel, more flexibility.
The payload could go up on a separate disposable rocket. The payload varies by mission, but with the Shuttle you had to take the same vehicle every time, meaning the missions had to be planned around maximizing the use of payload space. It was a poor choice that, once NASA committed to it, were stuck with flying infrequent, costly, wasteful missions.