[ale] OT: Space Shuttle Columbia
Christopher Bergeron
christopher at bergeron.com
Tue Feb 4 23:55:35 EST 2003
Jeff Hubbs wrote:
>>rendezvous or an "unusual" re-entry.
>>
>>
>
>This is just wild idle thinking, but could there be such a thing as a
>temp-limited re-entry?
>
>Everything about Orbiter re-entry is predicated on the notion of getting
>it down to a certain altitude, speed, and heading at a certain location
>on the Earth (essentially, the point of flare-out right before
>landing). What if you threw that out, decided you didn't give a crap
>where it landed, and just tried to get it subsonic in an altitude range
>where the crew could bail out? I can imagine some kind of repeated
>skipping operation, intentionally coming in a bit too shallow each
>time. I wonder if the simulators can even handle such.
>
>
Jeff, that's an ingenious solution! I tend to think, though, that it
would require abandoning NASA's proposed next generation re-usable
spacecraft.
Just my .02 cents,
CB
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