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From: gandalf@pro-electric.cts.com (Ken Hollis)
Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Subject: Re Fuel-line door questions...
Message-ID: <7792@crash.cts.com>
Date: 2 Mar 91 11:16:19 GMT
Sender: root@crash.cts.com
Lines: 31

Greetings and Salutations:

From: mmachlis@athena.mit.edu (Matthew A Machlis)
Subject: Fuel-line door questions...
>Is there any kind of sensor which indicates to the crew or ground
>controllers whether or not the doors are closed?

Just about everything mechanical on the orbiter has instrumentation of some
type, and the doors are no exception.  There are two indicators per door
for a total of four, that indicate if the door is closed and latched. 
There are also drives to pull the door closed once it gets close to the
close position.

>Is there any way they could try to close them manually through an EVA?

Yes.  They could cycle them and try to help them into the almost closed
position, then hopefully the uplock latches would be positioned to pull the
door completely shut.  Hopefully the tile on the door would not be damaged.
This is pure speculation as to how they would try to close the door.
 The doors are made out of beryllium, the same type of material the old
brakes were made out of.  The brakes were actually carbon lined beryllium.

Of course this whole discussion is no longer applicable since Discovery is
rolling back to fix the hinge.

Ken Hollis
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