NASA Technology on the Space Shuttle

[ianess]

Isn't it amazing that even in the 21st Century, miracles can still be worked with a pair of plyers and a hacksaw blade?

[v64paul]

many of the trucks i've worked on in the past have been held together with plastic cable ties. even secured a starter motor on a bulldozer with a piece of 3x2 cut to length. if it was safety related we would at least try a nut and bolt or maybe weld it...

[MargeB]

*A hacksaw which he had fashioned himself, using items found around the spacecraft. If that didn't make me dizzy enough, the astronaut went on to explain to the control centre "I loved to build model airplanes and stuff when I was growing up, so I feel quite at home with a hacksaw".

Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight.The other astronauts were giving him squinty looks by that point.

[MORELLO]

I think it's more amazing that bits are still falling off! Who makes these things, TVR?

[jake-the-peg]

Ask me again when they're down safely.

I wonder if we'll ever see another shuttle launch 

[MargeB]

Well jake, I think it's an important contribution to science, to send a vehicle into space, so it can get reparied and try to come back down again. 20 years ago this was just a dream......

[jake-the-peg]

Not really Marge - 20 years ago the shuttle had been flying for nearly 4 years already! and NASA has a fine history of bodge repairs in orbit - Obviously three was Apollo 13 but there was also the repairs to SkyLab's solar pannels and meteorite shield and the Hubble repair mission and the solar max satellite.

In fact NASA seem to have a better record than most plumbers in my area - I think they're probably cheaper too!

[ianess]

 

I tend to agree with most of the answers so far, but find it disturbing that so little seems to have been learned over the years from so many incidents.  After all, most technologies evolve over time but the main source of trouble seems to centre round the solid rocket boosters used at take-off, basically the same method as used by the Chinese centuries ago.  Are the days of Star Trek really so far off and if not then why do we hear so little about developments?

[jake-the-peg]

The days of Star Trek are I'm afraid pure fantasy - we will never visit the stars they are just too far away.

However there have been significant advances but they're not always glamorous. For example the Shuttle's main engines run Liquid Hydrogen and liquid Oxygen this is incredibly efficient for a space rocket but of course the mixture is a high explosive and well beyond earlier craft which almost universally used kerosene and liquid oxygen.

[janesmythe22]

Armageddon:
Rockhound (Steve Buscemi): "You know we're sitting on four million pounds of fuel, one nuclear weapon and a thing that has 270,000 moving parts built by the lowest bidder. Makes you feel good, doesn't it?"

I wouldn't be sure about "one nuclear weapon" this time, but so much for the free market economy.

[tony1941]

If you want to read a really professional view on Shuttle reliability, try this link:

http://www.ralentz.com/old/space/feynman-report.html

If you don't yet know about Richard Feynman, try this one:

http://www.feynman.com/