I reckon it's gonna be fireworks again.

Just been reported that Handy Andy is up there with his no-nails sticking polystyrene ceiling tiles all over the hull (or something)... :huh:

Anyhoo... What dya think? Safe landing or fireball?

Where's Bruce Willis when we need him...

It most likely takes only one of them to land the shuttle. After they fix it, they could draw straws to see who would fly it back home while the others wait on the space station for another shuttle to pick them up.:clap:

I'm keeping fingers crossed for them.

The tidying up they're doing to the heat shield is a precaution, after all, to stop uneven heating, and I think that were there a real problem they'd keep them up there for a while.

Problem is the shuttle is old technology - they'll keep it running until the new stuff's ready, which is a few years yet, or they'll have to rely on the 'old tech' of the Russian (and maybe even Chinese??) 'one use' capsule approach.

Joe

I been thinking this my self..And watching it live now and then i dont think the nasa people are too confident what will happen.They always look like they can not answer a question properly just in case something does happen,I dont know if anything will happen but then again look at 2003 same thing happend.Even tho they got the gear to fix it.it be a miracle if come home alive.

If i was up there id wait for the next ride home for sure- sod that!!!!

I agree with Joe on this one, the shuttles are so old now, faults are appearing, I think they will get them down this time tho. But NASA really need to hurry up with the replacement for the shuttle.

Joel

Considering some of these space shuttles are 20 years old, they are doing pretty well.


They still aren't as economical as single use space vehicles though.

Scaled Composites, having won the Ansari X prize, Look like a contender with their technology.

Over the next 50 years we will hopefully see the launch of commercial manned and unmanned spaceflight, without the support of the state.

Of course some would like to keep space the preserve of the military and the state. We shall see.

Who remembers the first Shuttle launch, waiting for days for it to lift off? Exciting Stuff, but we should all be living on the moon by now.

Originally posted by Phanerothyme
Who remembers the first Shuttle launch, waiting for days for it to lift off? Exciting Stuff, but we should all be living on the moon by now.

And by rights we should all be driving hover cars and have robot servants by now, too. What happened to all that?

Back to the Shuttle, I still can't quite get my head around the fact that moving air can cause enough friction to destroy a 100(?) ton spaceship. Don't you just love physics?

I do feel really sorry for the astronauts up there, and I'm even more sorry to say I hope they dont get back in that shuttle to come back on it.

We all have seen what happened to the last shuttle that went up into the heavens... they didnt come back.

If I was one of the astronauts up there at this precise moment in time, I would be saying to NASA, I'm not coming back down in that piece of crap, send something else up for me to come home in.

Originally posted by ANGELUS
I do feel really sorry for the astronauts up there, and I'm even more sorry to say I hope they dont get back in that shuttle to come back on it.

We all have seen what happened to the last shuttle that went up into the heavens... they didnt come back.

If I was one of the astronauts up there at this precise moment in time, I would be saying to NASA, I'm not coming back down in that piece of crap, send something else up for me to come home in.

That's why you're not an astronaut!

Look at the STS overall safety record.

Does anyone ever look out for the ISS passing overhead? - it's quite a sight!

Perhaps the shuttle designers should take a leaf out of the Chinese re-entry module designers, who used oak planks as heat shielding on their spacecraft, which worked very well.

Why go into space at all?

Ray Bradbury wrote:
For the same reason that makes us bring children into the world. Because we're afraid of death and darkness, and because we want to see our image reflected and perpetuated to immortality. We don't want to die, but death is there, and because it's there we give birth to children who'll give birth to other children and so on to infinity. And this way we are handed down to eternity. Don't let us forget this: that the Earth can die, explode, the Sun can go out, will go out. And if the Sun dies, if the Earth dies, if our race dies, then so will everything die that we have done up to that moment.

Homer will die, Michelangelo will die, Galileo, Leonardo, Shakespeare, Einstein will die, all those will die who now are not dead because we are alive, we are thinking of them, we are carrying them within us. And then every single thing, every memory, will hurtle down into the void with us. So let us save them, let us save ourselves.

Let us prepare ourselves to escape, to continue life and rebuild our cities on other planets: we shall not long be of this Earth! And if we really fear the darkness, if we really fight against it, then, for the good of all, let us take our rockets, let us get well used to the great cold and heat, the no water, the no oxygen, let us become Martians on Mars, Venusians on Venus, and when Mars and Venus die, let us go to the other solar systems, to Alpha Centauri, to wherever we manage to go, and let us forget the Earth.

Let us forget our solar system and our body, the form it used to have, let us become no matter what, lichens, insects, balls of fire, no matter what, all that matters is that somehow life should continue, and the knowledge of what we were and what we did and learned: the knowledge of Homer and Michelangelo, of Galileo, Leonardo, Shakespeare, of Einstein! And the gift of life will continue."

So he said, father. And to me it sounded like a most beautiful prayer....

I'm fairly confident that they'll be okay. Damage to the shuttle was minimal and they are only repairing it to be on the safe side (and because they want to test out the repair techniques).

Originally posted by mojoworking
Back to the Shuttle, I still can't quite get my head around the fact that moving air can cause enough friction to destroy a 100(?) ton spaceship. Don't you just love physics?

It's probably a gormless question but if they came in slower (by firing rockets to slow themselves down) wouldn't the friction be less ?

Or is the Earths gravity just too strong to slow yourself down once you start heading towards it ?

Originally posted by nick2
It's probably a gormless question but if they came in slower (by firing rockets to slow themselves down) wouldn't the friction be less ?

Or is the Earths gravity just too strong to slow yourself down once you start heading towards it ?

orbital mechanics is quite complicated and it's a while since my physics a level.

But basically, they do fire rockets to slow down, this is what causes the orbit to decay.
They then hit the atmosphere still travelling at probably 20,000 mph. The speed is then bled of through friction with the atmosphere which converts the energy to heat.

If you wanted to land ala sci fi craft, ie coming to a dead stop over your target and then slowly lowering towards it it would require more fuel than they use in the first place to get up their.
And remember that they use a discardable main rocket and then two discardable boosters.
It's not theoretically impossible, but we don't have any sort of power source capable of generating that level of thrust without burning tons of fuel.

If they tried to slow down more at the moment all that would happen would be a faster decay of the orbit and a subsequent burning up as it reached thicker atmosphere whilst the speed was still too high.

haven't the other shuttles been grounded - if they don't get this one down its going be ages before the others are safe to pick up the people left at the 'station'

Originally posted by Cyclone
If you wanted to land ala sci fi craft, ie coming to a dead stop over your target and then slowly lowering towards it it

Thats what I was visualising but I did think they would be doing that now if they could.

We need to invent anti-gravity.

Originally posted by Phanerothyme
That's why you're not an astronaut!



Very true!

And thats why I'm not an astronaut for the simple fact that they 7 people on board that space station are probably going to be die when they try re-entry again.

Another unsuccessful mission again from NASA.

Sorry not a scientific question but when is it due to landed back on Earth?

And is it planned to show the landing live on TV ?

Not sure I could watch - I still haven't gotten over the take-off of Challenger when it exploded.

I was thinking the same thing Sam!

I wouldnt want to watch it just in case this one goes the same way.

Originally posted by ANGELUS
Very true!

And thats why I'm not an astronaut for the simple fact that they 7 people on board that space station are probably going to be die when they try re-entry again.

Another unsuccessful mission again from NASA.

Extremely successful so far. Are you so sure this will happen that you will give me good odds on them returning safely in their Shuttle?

The reason they are astronauts is because they are prepared to take the risk and make the sacrifice for the rest of us. And of course they are highly qualified pros and leaders in their field.

And they know the risks, and they know that sacrifices will be made.

So when faced with something like this, they keep there heads, and use there considerable intellect and skills to avert catastrophe.

Considering the environment they are operating in (Hazardous doesn't begin to describe it) there are remarkably few fatalities in space exploration or orbital engineering.

I am confident that this mission will be a success.

The mission is only successful until they get back down to earth.
The more and more I read and see about that shuttle, they aint coming home in one piece.

And I know sick as it sounds, I'd put money on it at this moment in time.

A colleague of mine at work got me thinking as well the other day when he said, if NASA cant get shuttles to work right, how did they ever manage to land on the moon?

Interesting theory I had to admit..
And it does for me bear thinking about.

Originally posted by ANGELUS
Very true!

And thats why I'm not an astronaut for the simple fact that they 7 people on board that space station are probably going to be die when they try re-entry again.

Another unsuccessful mission again from NASA.

what exactly makes you so pessimistic?

Because the same thing happened to the last shuttle, only the damage is supposed to be worse on this one.

In short.. I would not like to be them when they try to get back down to earth.

The shuttle will be fine. They have landed shuttles safely that have been in much worse condition than this before now! Its only because of the Colombia disaster that these "interesting" areas of damage to the shuttle are being examined so carefully.

The tile filler that they have easily and sucessfully removed this afternoon has been exposed before during shuttle landings before and caused no problem. They removed it this time because they knew more about the problem and knew it was easy to fix.

Originally posted by ANGELUS
Because the same thing happened to the last shuttle, only the damage is supposed to be worse on this one.

In short.. I would not like to be them when they try to get back down to earth.

The damage is worse on Discovery than it was on Columbia? Where exactly have you seen that stated? NASA have said that using the OBSS they have checked the shuttle and its in good condition and given it a clean bill of health. Columbia had a suitcase-sized chunk taken out of its wing - now that was damage!

Saying Discovery is in worse state that Columbia is utter bull!

Hmmm I've heard it was the heat shields which were damaged on this one.. which is a MAJOR problem on the shuttle.

If it is, and they dont do the repairs well enough they will eiher burn up in re-entry or explode.

And NASA are going to keep a positive spin on it arent they.. they are not going to come out and say oh yeah they are well and truly fooked like Columbia?!?!?

Let us watch and see then shall we.. and I hope I am really wrong on this one.

Originally posted by ANGELUS
Hmmm I've heard it was the heat shields which were damaged on this one.. which is a MAJOR problem on the shuttle.

Have you checked the mission website? http://www.nasa.gov/returntoflight/news/STS-114-16.html

Originally posted by Phanerothyme
Have you checked the mission website? http://www.nasa.gov/returntoflight/news/STS-114-16.html

Cheers for that Phan
Just found this little snippet which interested me

This extravehicular activity (EVA) was a preplanned activity for the mission, but now includes a new task -- repair of two protruding gap fillers between tiles on the bottom the Shuttle.

So first it was the nose area that was damaged, they fixed that and there was a further 2 space walks indicating a lot more damage than they said originally to me.

So tiles on the bottom are damaged as well are they.

God help them!

If this shuttle exploded, and god forbid if it does- NASA should drop shuttle flights altogether period.

I do think you're being overly pessimistic and dramatic about this angelus. But i guess we'll see in a few days time.

I hope you are right Cyclone mate.. I really do.
Fingers crossed for a safe return!

Its coming down.

Watching it live on NASA TV (http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/).

It's getting very close to California now.

ooooohhhh I can see it !!!!!!

It should touch-down at 12 minutes past.

It looks like a fireball at the minute.

Weeeee
It's amazing - is it about 60 miles away now?

They are gliding !!!!

They can't arse it up now, it's thought the atmosphere.

It is just so beautiful to watch - fingers crossed it's not a bumpy landing..

Yay!

It's down.

What a relief.

Originally posted by ANGELUS
I hope you are right Cyclone mate.. I really do.
Fingers crossed for a safe return!

yay, I was right.

Great stuff!

I am so pleased they got back OK - been keeping fingers crossed all morning.

Joe :)

Now that landing was impressive - and it was a woman driving !!! :P

Just pleased everyone is home and safe:clap: :: :clap:

Originally posted by samc
Now that landing was impressive - and it was a woman driving !!! :P

There is still the parking to do :)


(sorry ladies)

We really should have some words from the great voice of DOOM ANGELUS......................speak up.

Originally posted by samc
Now that landing was impressive - and it was a woman driving !!! :P
No wonder they ended up in California my missus hated driving in bad weather too. :hihi:

Originally posted by ANGELUS
Another unsuccessful mission again from NASA.