Say goodbye to the ISS

[Steve Schear]

As some friends in the U.S. space program had privately predicted, and the New York Times is today reporting, unless the problem with the Shuttle can be quickly identified and convincingly rectified to worried legislators, the International Space Station may have to be moth balled and the NASA manned space program put on hold. http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/02/science/02cnd-stati.html

I was shocked to learn Saturday that NASA had not a mechanism to adequately inspect the exterior of the shuttles for damage before the return to earth. The reasons given seem to imply that NASA's ability for EVAs was very limited and did not generally include on most flight the possibility of such examinations. Further there was no effective ground or ISS-based observation method either.

I can't imagine that it would be so difficult to construct a small, remotely-controlled, gyro stabilized, tethered probe that would be carried on all shuttle missions and could be deployed from the cargo bay to closely inspect the exterior of the craft for possible damage. Even if the shuttle could not be immediately repaired, it could be somehow moored at some part of the station and left there till a repair mission could be effected or perhaps sacrificed by a controlled burn re-entry over an unpopulated area of the earth as some satellites have already ended their days. In any case astronauts would then not need to "live-test" a possibly damaged shuttle as those on Columbia did Saturday.

steve


"Reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled."
-- Richard P. Feynman