Duct tape to the rescue in space, again

It's time to ground the entire rotting piece of junk.

robert

You're a goddamned retard. You're grounded, boy.

On a sunny day (Tue, 16 Oct 2007 05:34:31 -0700) it happened Winfield wrote in :

Expect to find a whole lot of anti-Russian stuff in the news. This is because the US was humiliated by Putin as regardin gIran.

How many starts were made by Russia because the foam build shuttle failed?

Heh.

I remember all those video clips of Bill Shepherd, the first Station commander, floating here and there with at least one roll of duct tape wired to his belt. :)

We'll have to kill more astronauts, perhaps the entire station's crew, before that happens.

John

Are you claiming the article is untrue? Or that it should be supressed for political reasons? Or that the IEEE published it to humiliate Putin?

John

Whoever packed a roll of it on Apollo 13 deserves a Nobel Prize. ;-)

Cheers! Rich

I was in a plane one day at the terminal, and there was a plane next to me. I was looking at the wire comming out of a door, duct tapped to the fuselage. Seemed like it went between two doors. I kept wondering about that.

greg

Not sure what he's driving at - but I am dismayed at the anti-Russian closing. Let's face it folks, our (US) space program has killed a lot more people lately than the Russians'. Space research isn't safe, and mistakes will be made. And they will cost lives.

It's easy to stand on the ground in Houston and make wise noises after the fact. It's much harder to build something and anticipate *every* mode of failure. Heck, I've been designing things for 20 years and have probably never anticipated every single point of failure ahead of time.

On a sunny day (Tue, 16 Oct 2007 08:48:21 -0700) it happened John Larkin wrote in :

I am considering the possibility Winfield posted it for political reasons. Sure the article itself is highly anti-Russian. You guys got to get rid of Bush, he makes the US look like an idiot. (rest see my postings in us.politcs, this is not the place, my name is not Tom Jimpson or something LOL).

I've always been amused at the novel failure mechanisms I didn't anticipate... my most famous was applying short-circuit protection to an output stage only to have the driver fail from uncontrolled current ;-)

...Jim Thompson

--
|  James E.Thompson, P.E.                           |    mens     |
|  Analog Innovations, Inc.                         |     et      |
|  Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC\'s and Discrete Systems  |    manus    |
|  Phoenix, Arizona            Voice:(480)460-2350  |             |
|  E-mail Address at Website     Fax:(480)460-2142  |  Brass Rat  |
|       http://www.analog-innovations.com           |    1962     |
             
         America: Land of the Free, Because of the Brave

Whovever decided on 2 types of CO2 scrubbers deserves something as well

Martin

CptDondo hath wroth:

My best mistake was designing a radio with BITE (built in test equipment). The idea was that failure was inevitable and that BITE would expedite repairs and therefore improve overall uptime. The problem was that BITE was an afterthought and was done in the traditional unplanned last minute rush. The radio worked just fine, but the BITE sections were constantly failing.

Long ago, I lived with a ladyfriend that was aspiring to become a medical doctor. Our philosophies were radically different. I was into maximizing the number of trial and error mistakes (also known as try, test, and tweak). She was into never making a mistake. I learned quite a bit about approaching problem solving, diagnostics, and "repairs" from her perspective. Today, it's called defensive medicine. Fortunately, it hasn't hit electronics quite yet, except in the space program.

I found the IEEE Spectrum article interesting in that it demonstrated that assigning the blame really is the first step in solving a problem. In most bureaucratic organizations, this initial step is vital. I've worked for companies where a culprit must be found before any problem can be fixed. I also found it interesting that when it finally came down to the actual troubleshooting, visual inspection again showed what was not obvious to the test equipment. I've lost count of how many times just looking at the problem showed something that was not anticipated. My favorite was a malfunctioning remote weather station, that was inadvertently converted into a bee hive. None of the specs mentioned anything about making it bee proof.

--
Jeff Liebermann     jeffl@cruzio.com
150 Felker St #D    http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann     AE6KS    831-336-2558

Use it for ASAT target practice.

--
Paul Hovnanian	paul@hovnanian.com
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
The blinking cursor writes; and having writ, blinks on.

Strange, I didn't see the article as anti-Russian (as for the administrators, they aren't so different from ours).

But I did see it as pro duct tape. As it happens, duct tape is an important part of the shuttle missions, since our astronauts use it to create impromtu work areas, tape laptop computers to the walls, etc. Very important stuff, but something of a secret. That's what I meant by "again", referring to our own heavy use in space.

Well, I do agree with that, as y'all know.

[snip]

Said with tongue firmly in cheek, I'm sure. ;-)

In organizations heavily invested in accident analysis, troubleshooting and life safety (FAA/NTSB, NFPA, etc.) the policy is to defer assigning the blame until after the forensics is done. In many cases, penalties are forgiven permanently in order to encourage open exchanges of information necessary to support investigations.

In my experience, it is these situations that cause the incompetents to surface and insist upon blame assignment up front. Its a means of protecting a reputation when they know that the odds are high that the sh*t will end up in their lap in the end. Get it put in the meeting minutes up front and if the issue ever comes back at them, they can brush it aside by demanding that closed items not be revisited. The best defense is often a good offense.

Competent individuals can survive a few screw-ups in their careers and will in fact learn from them. Its called lessons learned and it demonstrates an individuals' ability to improve.

This illustrates one of the primary arguments for manned space missions. In spite of the additional expenses involved, having people available to pop a cover off of something and look is the only way to catch all the stuff that can't be handled remotely.

--
Paul Hovnanian	paul@hovnanian.com
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
The blinking cursor writes; and having writ, blinks on.

You might appreciate this then,

Martin

[snip]

Win, You're not qualified to use the phrase "y'all"... that is by birthright only ;-)

...Jim Thompson

-- | James E.Thompson, P.E. | mens | | Analog Innovations, Inc. | et | | Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus | | Phoenix, Arizona Voice:(480)460-2350 | | | E-mail Address at Website Fax:(480)460-2142 | Brass Rat | |

| 1962 | America: Land of the Free, Because of the Brave

Reminds me that back in the '50's, when my father owned a hardware store, he was demonstrating "unbreakable" storm doors by slapping the glass with the palm of his hand... the "glass" would just flex back and forth like it was made of a rubber sheet.

Then, one day, a panel shattered and left him needing 32 stitches in his forearm :-(

...Jim Thompson

--
|  James E.Thompson, P.E.                           |    mens     |
|  Analog Innovations, Inc.                         |     et      |
|  Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC\'s and Discrete Systems  |    manus    |
|  Phoenix, Arizona            Voice:(480)460-2350  |             |
|  E-mail Address at Website     Fax:(480)460-2142  |  Brass Rat  |
|       http://www.analog-innovations.com           |    1962     |
             
         America: Land of the Free, Because of the Brave