Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: Will we lose another orbiter
Message-ID: <1990Apr8.050005.23425@utzoo.uucp>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
References: <1990Mar29.184206.16592@utzoo.uucp> <278@flight.UUCP> <1990Apr6.024844.16083@utzoo.uucp> <2836@rodan.acs.syr.edu>
Date: Sun, 8 Apr 90 05:00:05 GMT

In article <2836@rodan.acs.syr.edu> amichiel@rodan.acs.syr.edu (Allen J Michielsen) writes:
>Isn't the gear down system a spring loaded explosive system ?
>I kinda remember understanding that the gear was locked in place by
>explosive bolts, which are blown & the gear drops.  Gravity & springs
>then drop the gear.  If that's correct the gear could only stay up if
>the explosive bolts don't fire.

I don't remember the deployment mechanism, but it is true that the gear
can't be retracted in flight.  (That's one reason why the computers are
not trusted to lower the gear -- that function is manual only.)
-- 
Apollo @ 8yrs: one small step.|     Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
Space station @ 8yrs:        .| uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu