Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!seismo!sundc!pitstop!sun!amdcad!ames!husc6!rice!titan!phil From: phil@titan.rice.edu (William LeFebvre) Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle Subject: Re: ANSWERS: Reprogramming, plume, etc... Message-ID: <1963@kalliope.rice.edu> Date: 5 Oct 88 15:03:00 GMT References: <981@netxcom.UUCP> <1952@kalliope.rice.edu> <1468@viper.Lynx.MN.Org> Sender: usenet@rice.edu Reply-To: phil@Rice.edu (William LeFebvre) Organization: Rice University, Houston Lines: 32 In article <1468@viper.Lynx.MN.Org> dave@viper.Lynx.MN.Org (David Messer) writes: >In article <1952@kalliope.rice.edu> phil@Rice.edu (William LeFebvre) writes: > >There were no available replacement fuses on the shuttle. One had to be > >sent up from the ground. BY DESIGN, nothing important is close to the > >launch pad---they probably had to send one out from the VAB, 3 miles away. > >Are you saying that NASA was worried that an accident on the >pad would wipe-out their supply of fuses? Well, not really. I have the impression that they only bring stuff into "the perimeter" that needs to be there. There isn't much in the way of extras. I heard that not only did they replace the fuses that were blown, but they stowed extras on board. Since this is the first flight that they've ever used these suits, I think someone just plain forgot that there should be some extras on board. I suspect that there are extra fuses stowed on board for other things, but as long as they were on the ground they figured it was worth waiting so as not to use extras designated for other purposes. But then, this is all speculation. >This does seem to be a case of poor contingency planning -- I'll agree with you there. There should have been extras on board. But even if there were, they may have wanted to wait anyway to replenish the on-board stock. What I wonder about more than the lack of spare fuses is why did the fuses blow in the first place? A fuse doesn't just blow for no good reason. Sounds to me like some other minor problem needs to be fixed. William LeFebvre Department of Computer Science Rice University