How about the decision not to repair the shuttle?

Question

Is it just me and my friends , or is it ignorant not repair the shuttle just to make sure.

We'll see who is ignorant. If they make it down I'll apoligize. One of my friends is an ex navy pilot and was friends of four of the Columbia astronauts and agrees.

Answer 1

The spacewalk to make the repairs would have been very risky, and the damage is so slight that it does not pose any risk.

So guess who's ignorant!

Answer 2

It is risky, but then the spacewalk is risky as well.

NASA has experts that weigh all the options, space shuttles have come back with this kind of damage before. This is not like Columbia where the damage was on the leading wing. This damage is near a landing gear door and the heat is much lower at this point.

Personally, I think they should make the repair, they can just put some goop into the gap and it shouldn't take long or be very dangerous, but just moving an astronaut near to the underside of the shuttle is dangerous. One slip with the Canada Arm and a huge hole could be gouged into the shuttle underside. This would make any return impossible. Currently, the risk is minor and acceptable, but the risk of the repair could be more than it is worth.

I have tried to make delicate repairs on things before and let a fumble create more damage than I repaired, so NASA could be right to let this one go.

My father was a safety engineer who worked on Apollo, Space Station and the Space Shuttle. You do not know how fragile those tiles are, I do. You have no experience with the repair work, NASA does. Before they make a decision like that they put other astronauts into the simulation tank and practice the repair. They spend at least twice the time practicing for the job that they spend on the job, usually the ratio of practice is much higher.

As Apollo 13 showed, when the astronauts are in trouble they use the backup crew to go into the simulator to exactly simulate what is going on and what can happen. They do the work on the ground or in the pool and they make all the mistakes there before they make the final decision. That's why NASA's first decision was to extend the flight by 14 days so they would have the luxury of time to make the decision and to practice the repair several times to see just how dangerous it could be.

Trust me if NASA says it should not be done then that is based on sound reasoning, the agreement of fellow astronauts, and hours of hours of testing and planning. The third loss of a shuttle is a huge publicity and political nightmare that NASA has to consider very carefully. They will not make the decision lightly, and they will carefully game it out first.

Answer 3

The astronauts had two options: a. Go underneath the belly of the shuttle where their radios and communication do not work, and not have instruction from mission control or b. Leave it because the damage is actually quite minor, and the mission will not last long enough for it to pose much threat. So really, compared to the risk of repairing it, letting it go is much, much safer. Dave Williams, our Canadian astronaut, approved of the decision in an interview from space as well.

Answer 4

it's like this, the gash they found isn't a threat to the astronauts safety. They know that it isn't going to get any worse during re-entry and rip the shuttle apart or anything like that.

What it will do is allow to much heat into that one area and it may potentially cause some damage to that particular area, which equates to expensive and time consuming repairs.

NASA's number one concern is the safety of their astronauts, and since spacewalks are inherintly dangerous by nature, they made the decision to not have the astronauts put themselves at risk unless the damage presented a risk for them in the first place.

It's actually a pretty respectable decision that they are willing to take a big hit in the wallet in order to preserve the safety of the Astronauts.

Answer 5

'Missing tiles` is a common occurance on shuttle flights.
They've got a lot of experience with it, and only once, was it significant.
There are models the predict the results of specific damage to any specfic area.
Let's hope they're accurate.

Answer 6

I'm sure they know more about what they are doing than we do....but it seems they are risking the entire future of NASA if they happen to be wrong. If something does go wrong - I doubt you will ever see another shuttle launched.

Answer 7

The Nasa Engineers know a helluva lot more about the situation than anybody else on earth. They will make it back just fine.