Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!unmvax!gatech!gitpyr!ccoprmd
From: ccoprmd@pyr.gatech.EDU (Matthew T. DeLuca)
Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Subject: Re: What if...
Message-ID: <7786@pyr.gatech.EDU>
Date: 31 Mar 89 14:36:10 GMT
References: <18730@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu> <29106@sri-unix.SRI.COM> <379@hydra.gatech.EDU>
Reply-To: ccoprmd@pyr.UUCP (Matthew T. DeLuca)
Organization: Georgia Institute of Technology
Lines: 28

In article <379@hydra.gatech.EDU> dsm@prism.gatech.EDU (Daniel McGurl) writes:
>
>I seem to recall talk of a tile repair kit on board (this was not true in the 
>early days of the shuttle flights, I beleive they started carrying it later)
>if that weren't enough, I think that the the crew have little to no chance for
>survival.  Hopefully, however, massive tile damage might be caught in time to
>do a once around abort.
>-- 
As a matter of fact, the tile repair kit was carried from day one.  The tiles
were one of the big worries with the shuttle in it's early days (My God!  That
was eight years ago...), and so the shuttle was (and still is) equipped with a
signifigant supply of ablative goop (re: Apollo heat shield) that can be applied
to any areas that have lost tiles.  As a matter of fact, the concern over the
tiles was great enough to convince the powers that be to use a KH-11 Keyhole
spysat to come along and photograph the underside of Columbia to look for tile
damage.  As for catching the damage early, I'm not sure how that would be done.
The most critical area is the underside of the shuttle, which is concealed by
the external tank until T+8.5 minutes, and when that's gone, the shuttle is
moving awfully fast; who or what would look for damage?  And Daniel: why 
haven't you answered my mail?  :-)



-- 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------Matthew DeLuca                      :
Georgia Institute of Technology     : Remember, wherever you go, there you are.
ARPA: ccoprmd@pyr.gatech.edu        :