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Space Forum / Shuttle / March 2008Question about order of assembly
What is the reason that NASA has decided to launch the labs before completing the solar arrays ? I was under the impression that flying with unmatched solar arrays was not desirable due to uneven drag on the station and that getting them to be balanced would have been a priority ? Is this an issue with specific shuttles being required for the labs and/or the array and the maintenance cycle of shuttles just left a long gap between array carrying flights ? Or was there some political push to launch the foreign labs as soon as they had enough power and take a risk of leaving the station permanently unbalanced should the shuttle be grounded for a long time/permanently before the final array is shipped ? Does Nasa now do anything with regards to array orientation to mitigate the asymetric config ? (aka: reduce angle on the port arrays to reduce drag on that side to try to match drag on starboard side). > What is the reason that NASA has decided to launch the labs before > completing the solar arrays ? [quoted text clipped - 15 lines] > the asymetric config ? (aka: reduce angle on the port arrays to reduce > drag on that side to try to match drag on starboard side). The drag isn't that big a deal, it's more the various ratios of the principal moments of inertia, which was bad before 12A. NASA has bigger problems with the pitted SARJ bearing on the starboard side, keeping that array from rotating with the port side. Besides, the modules are the main point of the station, so as soon as the power and infrastructure was available, they were launched. Mike Ross > Or was there some political push to launch the foreign labs as soon as > they had enough power and take a risk of leaving the station > permanently unbalanced should the shuttle be grounded for a long > time/permanently before the final array is shipped ? Bingo > Does Nasa now do anything with regards to array orientation to mitigate > the asymetric config ? (aka: reduce angle on the port arrays to reduce > drag on that side to try to match drag on starboard side). No big deal. The attitude control system has sufficient control authority |
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