[geeks] Re: rescue Digest, Vol 3, Issue 7 (shutttle)

[Ido Dubrawsky]

Dave,

  I moved this off-list since Bill asked us to either move to geeks or off-
list.

> Date: Sun, 2 Feb 2003 00:57:18 -0500
> From: Dave McGuire <mcguire at neurotica.com>
> To: The Rescue List <rescue at sunhelp.org>
> Subject: Re: [rescue] Re: rescue Digest, Vol 3, Issue 4
> Message-ID: <2FFB50CF-3673-11D7-A905-000393970B96 at neurotica.com>
> In-Reply-To: <20030202043746.GA27547 at dubrawsky.org>
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> Message: 9
> 
> On Saturday, February 1, 2003, at 11:37 PM, Ido Dubrawsky wrote:
> >>    So they knew they had problems and just had to come down anyway?  I
> >> don't buy it.  They could've gone to ISS and hung out there and 
> >> awaited
> >> another ride home.  Sure, a difficult proposition, but better than
> >> losing the ship and crew.
> >>
> > OK, so now I've got to answere.  A little on my background first:  I 
> > have
> > both a bachelors and a masters in Aerospace Engineering (in particular,
> > in orbital mechanics and spaceflight).  I used to work for NASA JPL 
> > doing
> > trajectory and maneuver calculations for the Galileo project in 
> > another life.
> 
>    Ummm...wow.  Ok, now you've got my undivided attention.  I've always 
> known that you know what you're doing, but...I had no idea...
> 
Yeah, that was a long time ago...I left because the beaurocracy sucked (JPL
worked on the "Peter Principle"...everyone rises to the level of their own
incompetence...it's not true completely across the board because there were
alot of extremely talented and sharp people there...but the Navigation Systems
division was rife with politics and mismanagement that just got under my skin
too much.  It was a great job though...
>
>    Thanks for the authoritative explanation.  I understand now why it 
> wouldn't have been possible.
> 
As I said Dave, you're idea would have been the perfect solution and I wish it
would have been possible.  Unfortunately the reality of it is that it was not
pssible.
>
>    Is there any way that ISS facilities could help in a situation like 
> this, should they conclude that they can't safely land as planned?
> 
The quick answer is no.  You can't move ISS to a different orbit because the
stresses on the superstructure would rip it apart and kill the people on 
board there.  The only theoretically "real" solution would be to send up 
another shuttle to retrieve the astronauts trapped aboard the Columbia.
However, that's not even a real solution since the turnaround time of getting
a shuttle out onto the launch pad and ready to go is on the order of weeks to
months.  To my knowledge (and I'm a little dated at this point) there wouldn't
even be a way to send supplies up to the crippled shuttle since you can't dock
to the side hatch (the one the astronaut's use to enter the shuttle before 
liftoff -- there are no couplings available) -- and that's the only ingress/
egress point in the shuttle unless you have the airlock installed for 
spacewalks.

In all honesty, I wish something could have been done...something...To die like
that (and I really feel for their families -- Col. Ramon leaves behind a wife
and four children and the other astronauts have families too -- I have a wife
and three kids and I can't even bring myself to imagine the pain of losing
a loved one much less like that) seems almost unfair (they were at the end of
their mission, they were coming home, etc).  However, transition periods during
flight are the most dangerous parts of the flight (and this holds true in
aircraft as well by the way).  It's very rare to hear of an aircraft (or in 
this case spacecraft) exploding while in "steady state" flight.  The takeoff
and landings are the times in which you have the most variables changing and
the greatest stresses on the vehicle and that's where you have your greatest
possibilities for tragedy.

I remember Challenger exploding during launch (and by the way, that event is
what catalyzed me to go into Aerospace Engineering when I was a sophomore in 
college) and how awful I felt...this brings that moment back...in many more
ways than one.  I'm much older and I have a family.  I grieve not only for
those lost but for those they've left behind.

I don't want to leave this e-mail on a down note, but just to give a little
bright compliment...your website is looking good.  We moved to Silver Spring
back in November of last year and I'm working on getting my network up in
the basement (something I didn't have in Texas) and when it's finished I'll
put pictures out on my website (which I'm also in the process of setting up).
But you -- I tip my hats off to you -- two Crays.  My wife would kill me. :-)

Take Care,
Ido
-- 
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Ido Dubrawsky               			E-mail:  ido at dubrawsky.org
Network Security Architect				idubraws at cisco.com
dubrawsky.org
500 Hermleigh Rd
Silver Spring, MD. 20902
(512) 689-5312 (cell)
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