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July 29, 2005
Discovery Commander Surprised at Shedding
I don't know why people think this is a big deal. After researching it for a year, developing new techniques for applying foam and everything else NASA did to try avoid shedding the foam on the external fuel tank, I'm sort of surprised too that it didn't work. Which brings us back to the solution to the problem. The original design for the shuttle called for every part to be reusable, but the technology at the time didn't make that possible. So compromises were made to get the system up a running and we have the Shuttle program we see today.
Now I keep saying the X-33 project needs to be reactivated. I guess I should explain why that's the best choice. The X-33 attacked the Shuttle problems in the most straight forward ways possible with the latest technology. The first major weakness of the Orbiter is that it has heat tiles. At the time they were the cutting edge of technology, but they were very fragile. We have since made massive improvements in the heat resistant technologies which allows us to provide the same protections with a metallic thermal-protected panels. This is critical because it cuts the maintenance time of replacing the tens of thousands of individually cut and fragile tiles on the shuttle. Also it would make repairs easier in space without as much effort.
The next massive improvement was the Linear Aerospike engine. This was probably one of the most brilliant adaptations in the history of the aerospace industries. Rather than weight down the engine with the standard cooling systems and nozzle systems of the hundred years before, they instead used the aerodynamics of a space craft to create a virtual nozzle system. The actual flow of air over the space craft at different altitudes actually changed the virtual nozzle to optimize performance for the environment. This engine has the potential to change how we fly into space, allowing a single stage to orbit vehicle to be a realistic possibility. The lifting body design is slightly different, but in reality it's how the Orbiter is already designed so it's just better because it uses a flying wing design with it to maximize lift for re-entry while making room for storing all the fuel needed to make it to orbit onboard the craft. Eliminating the need for an external fuel tank (which is what is grounding the Shuttle fleet) and booster rockets (which caused the Challenger failure) and decreasing the lift off weight allowing you to make single stage to orbit work.
Finally and what some consider the most important part, but I find to be of secondary importance at the point that they closed the project down, was the ultra-light fuel storage containers. They allowed the X-33 to weight very little, while having the strength to hold all the fuel required for lift off. The problem that ended the project was a failure of one of these tanks. Lockheed Martin offered to replace them with aluminum tanks until they could find the problem with the composite tanks and were initially given permission to start the work on the temporary tanks so the Venture Star (X-33 Testbed) could continue forward, but then under the influence of the Bush Administration reorganization the project was shelved because the technologies were just too "new" to be practical.
Now 4 years later we have nothing to replace the Shuttle and we are worse off as a nation. If we had been allowed to continue to develop the technologies we would be in the second prototype construction phase by now and we would have the potential for a future space craft that would revolutionize space travel. Instead these critical technologies have been allowed to languish on the drawing boards and not been given the proper support that would have guaranteed that we would remain a serious space faring nation for the rest of time. And the Discovery commander wouldn't have to worry that she will be the last Astronaut from the United States to fly to the international space station on an American space craft.
Read more here.
Posted by ManDrake at July 29, 2005 4:26 PM
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