Comments mixed in below. Greg H.
----- Original Message ----- From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <biofuel@yahoogroups.com> Sent: Tuesday, February 04, 2003 12:22 Subject: Re: [biofuel] Re: OT: Columbia Space Shuttle Lost If they had determined in space that the Shuttle was not safe to return to earth the move would have been to send them to the Intl. Space Station ---------------------------- Not possible. The Columbia being the first ( and because it was the first ) was over built to a degree that it was significantly heavier than any of the fallowing shuttles. Being heavier, and because no shuttle is ever launched with more weight than needed for the mission, it did not ( at any time ) have the fuel to reach the Intl. Space Station that was in higher orbit. -------------------------------- where they could have docked and just sat it out until we could send a different shuttle to get most of them and if there were still two left up there in the Intl. Space Station they could be brought back in one of the Russian ships as they have three seats and can be flown by one person. ------------------------------- Then would you be leaving the crew of the Intl. Space Station in danger? There is one and only one escape ship at the Intl. Space Station. Each time a Russian capsule goes up, they take the one that was left there from the time before, back down to earth. -------------------------------- They may also have been able to stay until the second shuttle arrival if that was determined to be the better solution. Keeping in mind that if the Columbia had been determined to be unsafe in space we may not have felt that it was required to ground the fleet until we have clear answers as to what the cause is and we would know the problem and cause from the information that was developed to determine that they should not try the reentry in it. ---------------------------------- That is fine, but, they had no way of knowing it wasn't safe, and no way to find out. Even if they did, I think that you are forgetting that there is only a limited supply of food, air, and water available (even the space station is low on water at this point), and the fastest the next shuttle could be ready is/was 2 months. Each shuttle goes through a 3-4 month refurbishment to make sure they are safe. If it was the foam from the external tank, that caused the problem, the rest of the shuttles would still be grounded until a solution could be found, tested, and new tanks made, they would not jeopardize a different shuttle with a tank that was covered with the old foam. Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Biofuels list archives: http://archive.nnytech.net/ Please do NOT send Unsubscribe messages to the list address. To unsubscribe, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
