Posted on 05/24/2004 11:32:21 PM PDT by neutrino
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — NASA (search) ruled Monday that U.S. spacesuits on the international space station are unusable and ordered the crew to use Russian gear instead, adding considerable time and distance to a critical spacewalk next month.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
I have said before that abandoning our industrial base would lead to tears. Matters seem to be developing more rapidly than I had anticipated.
If you want on or off my offshoring ping list, please FReepmail me!
NASA engineers, meanwhile, are trying to figure out what is wrong with the two U.S. spacesuits, unused for more than a year.
It was inadvisable to attempt to deploy two year-long mothballed suits without proper checks. The internal mechanisms of those suits don't have an indefinite shelf-life, especially if they were stored improperly.
It was a situation just like this that doomed the high-gain antenna on the Galileo spacecraft. Originally that probe was supposed to go up in 1982, but a series of rocket malfunctions grounded it and relegated it to deployment via the Shuttle. Then the Challenger disaster occurred. All during that time, Galileo was stored at Kennedy Space Center. It just sat there. Unfortunately, by the time it was deployed in 1989, chances were very good that the lubricant applied for the umbrella-like high-gain antenna had either gummed up, dried out, or oxidized until it was just so much epoxy.
I wouldn't be surprised if a similar dynamic rendered the U.S. space suits unusuable.
All good points...and yet, your statement mentions "without proper checks" and "stored improperly". That would imply that our astronauts weren't doing a good job up there.
Let's hope the situation is benign, as you seem to suggest.
At $12,000,000 + per suit, you would expect better quality control. Wonder if I will be able to pick one up at the Goodwill store in a few years .
Same thing happened after Challenger put the shuttle fleet in moth balls for 2 1/2 years. They had to be nearly rebuilt, especially all the valves.
I am certain there is going to be a lot of trouble getting the remainder flying again this time after being down for so long. Stuff which was good, just doesn't stay good.
thanks for the ping. Sorry, I meant to address my post to you too.
When you have a budget that gets wiped clean and starts fresh every year, concern for the little things just isn't there.
A million here or there that gets wasted is not a big thing with any State or Federal Agency, unless the taxpayers find out about it. Then a promise to correct your bad habits all it takes to get more money.
No big deal, is it?
bttt
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