ISS Irony

Name something that was worth the cost.

John

John Larkin schrieb:

Hello,

if the bolts are to be inserted from outside, the may fail when they get hot during reentry and they will transport too much thermal energy inside. If the bolts are covered with ablative heat shield after mounting, dismounting of the heat shield will be difficult, you have to cut away the remaining heat shield over the the bolts. If the bolts are inserted from inside, mounting and dismounting will be very difficult. The joints of the parts of the heat shield are a problem, they must be sealed against hot compressed air during reentry. A single use heat shield on a single use space craft is much easier.

Bye

Yeah, you never know when you're going to hit a thunder shower in orbit.

While I've come around to your side of the argument, I wouldn't trust anything relating the SS and $$. There are just too many books cooked. A cow-orker used to work for Johns-Hopkins. Their experiments had to include the cost of the launch if it wasn't on the Shuttle but not if it was. Guess which was the preferred launch platform?

"From its original total cost estimate of about US$400 million, the telescope had by now cost over $2.5 billion to construct. Hubble's cumulative costs up to this day are estimated to be several times higher still, with US expenditure estimated at between $4.5 and $6 billion, and Europe's financial contribution at ?593 million (1999 estimate)."

What is now and what was, more than thirty years ago, are two different things.

So you're saying that it's primarily a huge PR stunt?

Particularly true when Hubble was launched.

What does that have to do with the point at hand (which you conveniently snipped)?

When the fleet was proposed/built. Even post Challenger they were talking about at least one a month.

Spread around the pain. ISTR something about non-proliferation treaties making the DOD lose interest in the shuttle, too.

Yeah, but the car those wheels goes on is only worth $200, today.

;-)

Let's see, the track from Canaveral to space goes...

You think janitors have that kind of money laying around?

Capsules had bolt-on heat shields.

John

Or on the launch pad in Florida.

John

Seems like heat during the launch phase should take care of that.

OK, figure $20,000 per kilogram, then do the math. Double that to get it back.

John

1. sortie an operational flight by one aircraft

AlwaysWrong.

John

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

John, you gotta be kidding!

is

Something seems out of context here....I can't believe that someone would actually project 250-300 shuttle flights a year (0.82/day) given that the entire technological concept was never tried, as in actually building one. I would be the rosey picture was more 4-5 a month, =3D 60/ yr.

-John

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Not to mension the logistic. Vandenberg (alternate site) was never ready for it. It took a few days to move the shuttle to the launch pad at KSC.

NASA has scientic and political senses, but no common sense.

Putting men on the Moon, beating the USSR for national prestige.

But, since we've abandoned our dreams, we're going down the same toilet, unless somebody can unseat Our Glorious Beloved Infallible Leader.

Hope This Helps! Rich

John...I missed the origins of that. What exactly did BooBoo get himself into now? Is that the amount he wants to pay for an extraction of an anally located bar magnet? I wouldn't be surprised.

mike

He swore (with the usual insults) that the ink on US currency was carbon based, and not magnetic. Wrong, of course, as anyone with a dollar and a magnet can confirm.

John

Worthless. Was our prestige over the USSR ever in doubt?

Since there is no USSR any more, it was an expensive non-victory.

John