Space Forum / Shuttle / August 2007

I read that the defective gyro that was replaced will be "stored" at the
station until a future shuttle flight can return it.
What's the reasoning behind that? They had room to bring the replacement
up, why not bring the old one back at this time?

I may not be a highly paid robot building type of guy BUT. When they built
the Mars Rovers did they not foresee dust storms? Why not put a simple brush
or wiper on the solar panels to remove any accumulated particles? I know the
solar panels  are not square or rectangular but ...

Can anyone  describe this to one who cannot see it?
What made it I wonder. A bit of ice?
Brian

I am watching the spacewalk activities right now. For the first time, I
guess, I am also listening rather intently to everything they say. It's
funny! Most of what they say is of course highly functional: we are doing
this, we are now going to do that. But a lot of what they say ...

After seeing news about the latest foam-damage to Endeavor's heat
shield, there seems to be a problem in selecting one of three repair
methods.
Why not employ all three? Put in some foam; spray the dried foam with

So how come they had to do this. I've never seen it before. What was the
problem?
Brian

Can the shuttle land without anyone actually being in it?
It can autotrack a localizer/glideslope just like any other aircraft, no?
Does it require someone to manually flare?
Just wondering because I was trying to get a feel for how serious this gash

Why do they always switch back to MC sitting at their terminals after the ET
seperates?  Thats boring!
Keep the video feed from the ET rolling!  I want to watch that sucker as it
comes back in and burns up.

Noted catching up with briefings that there was a fairly close  pass shortly
after launch to a delta rocket body. Depending on how long its been there,
I'd imagine you need to be worried about the possible cloud of smaller
sized debris in or near the same orbit.

What is the name of the software NASA uses in Mission Control that displays
a real time visual representation of the docked orbiter and station?  I'm
guessing it also isn't publicly available? Its a lot more pleasant to look
at that the orbital tracking applet on the website. <g>

The networks were showing high resolution images of the damage shuttle
tile. Does NASA have a web site for accessing those tile images?

I have gotten used to the little 6-8 minute Ascent Team video from
previous launches. Did I just miss it? Or is NASA not going to release
this teaser anymore? I always wanted more, but was willing to take
what I could get. Anyone know anything?

Looking on orbital tracking, i can se the speed are appx. 27700KPH.
Is that the "ground"speed, or the speed the shuttle are travveling, in air?
If it's the ground speed, they must be traveling damn fast up there!!
Henrik

Didn't a shuttle in the late 80's or early 90's suffer a near-catastrophic
burn-through due to impact and/or tile damage.  I could swear I saw a b/w
photo of a shuttle during post landing inspection that showed a pretty nasty
melt-through hole about 6 inches in diameter possibly ...

CNET had some pictures of that CEV thing (computers simulations). The
comments from the public were quite negative about returning to 1960s
stuff and the CEV/Orion being very unimpressive.
Here, there are almost no discussions left on the shuttle. No