Keep in mind that he resolution seen in the photos released from AMOS may not be as detailed as possible. Either way, you're right. It would
have been rough. There is the possibility that Atlantis could have
been preped and sent to join her in less than 2 week, but it would
have been very hard. A lot of short cuts would have had to be made.
Michael
The could have had a *lot* more than two weeks to launch a rescue if the decision were made right after Columbia reached orbit- the extended duration orbiter packs would have allowed a month or more of floating quietly in the dark (in chimp mode, as it were) while they waited for rescue. The limiting item in that case would have been food and CO2 scrubber material- and minimizing metabolic output (no exercise, sleep as much as possible) would have helped with those. Change the scrubber packs only when the CO2 level goes up, kill all the critters in the experiment packs early on (or eat them, no kidding), use solar heat or shade for thermal control instead of running the active cooling system.... The fuel cells could have been turned down to the minimum to run the air scrubbers, and while they might have gotten hungry, they might still be up there *today*.
The whole idea of "let's not look because there might be a real monster under the bed" is simply pathological. Denial cannot work.
Doug
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