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This Is An Accident Waiting To Happen

So apparently the astronauts that are on the space shuttle Discovery are going to have to repair their own ship. They're going to have to do something no other space crew has done: send a astronaut beneath the shuttle to repair filler sticking out between the tiles on the ship's belly.

I'm no expert at all this stuff, but while they are in (roughly) zero gravity in outer space, they're going to be orbiting Earth, right? That means they're be traveling through space really stickin' fast while they're doing this repair. There is obviously little room for error. It just makes me think of something I heard on the radio this morning: It'd be like if you were flying down the highway at 100 mph and realized your tailpipe was a bit loose, and wanted one of your passengers to crawl under the car (as you continued to haul tail down the highway) and fix it.

I just hope they all make it home safe.

Posted by Jake on 08/02/05 @ 08:56 AM
Posted in Scary | 9 Comments | Permalink
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9 Comments

Pat said on 08/02/05 @ 09:09 AM:
well, there is no friction to cause them to loose control. I don't see the problem.

Rick said on 08/02/05 @ 09:14 AM:
Yeah, your example uses friction and gravity to make it dangerous.

Brian said on 08/02/05 @ 09:18 AM:
bad example. There's no air resistance, and your inertia is taking you to the same place the shuttle is going. They simply won't fire the engines while the astronauts are outside.

You could just as easily say that the earth is spinning at 1,000mph, or that it's revolving around the sun at 67,000mph - so it must be really difficult to pick a pencil up off a table, what with all that moving.

Is it tricky? Certainly. But it's more like performing open heart surgery on yourself, than it is having someone else tighten a bolt on your exhaust while you're driving 100mph. The speed is relative, and meaningless in the near-vacuum up at the level they're at.

Jake said on 08/02/05 @ 09:20 AM:
Obviously my example was very flawed, guys, I know that (which is why I'm quoting a radio station, which is where I heard it), but it just still think it's fairly dangerous, friction/gravity ignored. Brian's example is much more appropriate.

Paul said on 08/02/05 @ 03:42 PM:
I don't see the danger at all. They do EVAs all the time, this is no different. American media is just making a big hype about it because -- oh no! Something went wrong!

I suppose in other words nothing is really news-worthy over there, huh? Maybe someday the American media will discover the phenomenon "international news".

"Fixing your tailpipe on the highway." Sheesh. What a load of bull crap.

Paul said on 08/02/05 @ 03:45 PM:
I just looked it up for ya. They've been doing this stuff for over 40 years now.

Paul said on 08/02/05 @ 03:47 PM:
I can't imagine all the fun they're having at NASA about all this mumbo jumbo.

Pat said on 08/02/05 @ 04:15 PM:
why is your local radio station promoting stupidity?

yoleen said on 08/03/05 @ 10:03 AM:
you got 'em all going on that one, Jake

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