Space Forum / Shuttle / February 2004

Seems to me that one way to economize on the design of new
launch vehicles, manned or otherwise, would be to take a
cue from the automotive industry and reuse major component
designs instead of starting all over again from scratch on

http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d04203.pdf
Eek.

I have a mars website that I tought I would share with teh newsgroup.  I
get live updated images in real time from JPL, as well have a large
collection of Color 3D Images!  Also, I have a Java LIVE Mars Chat. I
recently added an archive of the Nasa TV Press Conferences for those ...

...if you're still interested in the story of STS 107, Please visit...
http://www.chrisvalentines.com/sts107/
A reentry video reconstruction
A music video essay on NASA and the 107 mission

Would ejection seat type systems provide any real benefits in safety for new
vehicles? Some conjecture:
- Ejection seats require complex systems for opening doors and getting the
seat safely out of the vehicle

I don't mean to fuel the anti-shuttle zealots, but it seems to me one of the
main arguments for the shuttle is it's ability to bring things down from
space using the cargo bay. Has NASA done this? What has been brought down
and why?

"Debate on Bush space plan has been loaded with falsehoods"
BY DWAYNE A. DAY
SPECIAL TO FLORIDA TODAY
"The announcement of the new national space exploration plan has been

I'm trying to close out my STS-107/Columbia archive to CDs and I ran
into a couple of problems with getting the whole CAIB report.  The CAIB
website which was supposed to be taken down on 2/1/2004 is still up, and
http://www.caib.us/news/report/volume5/default.html lets me ...

Would anyone care to speculate as to how long will the rover tracks will last in
the Martian sand? Are they likely to be erased by the first sand storm? Or
might they last for hundreds of years?

Any confirmation of the following:
"BTW Sasha is smoking !!!! This morning, while working behind a panel,
he kept
tripping the smoke alarm in that cavity ! First one was taken

Is Lockheed hiring any production workers at all anywhere?

A thread over in sci.astro.seti (Subject: Curious fossil-like artifact on
Mars) started off with what someone thought might be a fossil near the
Opportunity airbag, but ended up with a post about another object
entirely. Here's a link to the object:

Florida Today reports that Bill Readdy, NASA's associate administrator for
spaceflight, is talking about an unmanned shuttle-derived heavy lift launch
vehicle (SD-HLLV) for President Bush the Younger's Moon/Mars initiative. By
my count this is the zillionth time this idea has been ...

Hypothetical: Shuttle crew takes off and makes it safely to the ISS. In the
interim, it is determined that the shuttle may not be safe to re-enter the
atmosphere. The astronauts abandon ship and stay on the ISS.
What happens to the shuttle?

Do you think a flying saucer (with antigrav drive) is better than a
shuttle or is a shuttle better than a flying saucer ?