Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uwm.edu!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!ames!dftsrv!chrpserv.gsfc.nasa.gov!packer
From: packer@chrpserv.gsfc.nasa.gov (Charles Packer)
Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Subject: Mate-Demate Facility
Message-ID: <675@dftsrv.gsfc.nasa.gov>
Date: 11 Jan 90 03:11:52 GMT
Sender: news@dftsrv.gsfc.nasa.gov
Reply-To: packer@chrpserv.gsfc.nasa.gov (Charles Packer)
Organization: Dept. of Independence
Lines: 37

In the course of seeing innumerable pictures of the shuttle 
riding on the back of the 747 over the years, I gradually
became aware of something missing in the media coverage
of the shuttle: there was never a picture of the actual 
process of lifting the shuttle onto the back of the 747.
Every other event in the mission cycle seemed to be well-
covered and well-photographed.

Eventually I obtained a catalog of NASA photos, found
that there were two from 1977 about a "Mate-Demate" facility,
and ordered a print of one of them. Later, while doing a
study of another subject using back issues of the NY Times,
I found that they did publish one photo of the facility--
in 1977.

I learned of the NASA catalog at the souvenir shop at Goddard
Space Flight Center, where I first went in my search.  There
they have a clever book titled something like "The Space
Shuttle: An Operator's Manual," which has a wealth of pictures
and charts of every aspect of the shuttle's construction and
operation. A chapter in the back, titled "Support Facilities",
has a picture of the mobile platform that carries the shuttle/
booster combination out to the launch pad.  There is also a
section on the 747, describing how it was modified to hold the
weight of the shuttle, complete with a drawing identifying each
modification.  There is not even any mention of the mate-demate
facility! 

In any case, there's an opportunity here for some alert
psychologist to do an experiment to test people's understanding
of engineering principles: ask them how the shuttle is 
placed on the 747.  It's unlikely that they've seen the
photo, so they won't =know= how it's done, but it's a 
=problem= they can understand, having (most likely) seen
many pictures of the completed result. I myself imagined
a mobile crane, picking up the shuttle and moving on wheels
to the 747.