Why doesn't every mission have the equipment for a space walk? Does a long enough tether take up that much room? Or a suit? With some proper planning, they'd have the equipment to at least physically inspect possible problems.
Then they'd have had time to either crash prepare another shuttle. Or shoot up another rocket (heck, the Russians had one on the pad as all this happened) with say more fuel -- so it could get to the ISS -- or more supplies to buy more orbit time -- and giving more time to get another shuttle ready -- or even sending up a Soyuz capsule for them to cram into and return to Earth.
Yes, there was nothing they could do after it reentered orbit. But before?
NASA's in full bureaucratic cover your butt mode. They'll trot out the families and other astronauts to distract. And those people will do it because they truly want to keep man in space and they believe that the Space Shuttle is their only option. So they'll give NASA the cover it needs.
If Apollo 13 had happened today, there'd be three dead astronauts as NASA said "There was nothing we could do!"
My idea is a small, cold-gas powered flyer with a camera. Teleoperated from inside the orbiter. By cold-gas, I mean a tank of compressed helium or nitrogen and teensy thrusters. Maybe weigh 20 kilograms max. It could fly all around the vehicle and let people see in real-time what the condition is.
It would probably cost $100 million to develop, knowing NASA, but it might save lives.
--Boris
Yes, there was nothing they could do after it reentered orbit. But before?
DUH!
They have only said about a 1000 times that the shuttle had neither the fuel to reach the Space Station nor the air to wait for a rescue.
Keep in mind that preparing for a space flight is not like packing the trunk of your Toyota. If they started today and had a rocket available and unfueled, it would take weeks to launch an unmanned rescue rocket with the appropriate gear. If, like the Russian rocket, the rocket was already fueled, it would take even longer, since it would have to be unfueled, before changing the payload - that is unless you want an even greater disaster on the ground.
Also, keep in mind that space and weight are at a premium on the Shuttle. Considering the significant size of EVA equipment (that must be kept in the crew compartment) it's not suprising that they would leave it out, since it would make room for several more experiments.
Furthermore, even if they had done a space walk, the only positive purpose that it would have served is to give us a better idea of what happened, after the breakup, since, as I pointed out above, they had neither the fuel to reach the Space Station nor the air to wait for rescue. Repair or rescue was not an option. On the other hand, if they had done a space walk, as you suggest, it would have had one other very undesirable effect. Instead of feeling triumphant until the last moments of their lives, the crew would have been worrying about a fate that they had no control over. If you think that would have been better, then I feel sorry for you.
Personally, I can think of only one better way to go than as a hero, serving all mankind, with the whole world watching. That would be the way Bruce Willis' character, Harry Stamper, went out in "Armageddon" - i.e. saving the world in the process.
Those folks were heroes. They gladly did what they did, knowing that they were risking their lives. The last thing that they would want is to have the Shuttle Program suffer a needless delay as a result of what happened to them.