[ale] OT: Space Shuttle Columbia

[Jeff Hubbs]

In one of my books on the subject, I recall reading that unlike Gemini
and Mercury, Apollo had a higher range of re-entry speeds to deal with
(~25KMPH vs. 18KMPH) and that as such, the same re-entry strategy would
not have been workable.  The Apollo CM, with its blunted bottom edges
and off-axis center of mass, *was* after a fashion "flown" in; it did
generate lift, albeit slight.  Its glide ratio makes the Shuttle look
like Rutan's Voyager.  And one of the concerns, which came to the fore
in Apollo 13, is having this "lift" scoop it right back out into space. 
The Orbiter can't do that; it's not going fast enough, but it seems like
it could be made to "skip" *just so*, giving it cycles of heating and
cooling.  This could be hell on the airframe, I know, but I'm talking
abou an emergency maneuver here.  

When they say  "NASA has already shaved as much
> temperature exposure off of the re-entry sequence as is possible," I bet 
they *mean* "...and make a wheel landing on the strip of our choosing.  An 
emergency situation in which the Orbiter is expendable but the crew is
not changes the ball game.

On Wed, 2003-02-05 at 00:32, Rick Huebner wrote:
> I heard an interview where this question of a less invasive reentry was
> asked.  Basically, the response was that NASA has already shaved as much
> temperature exposure off of the re-entry sequence as is possible.  That is
> key to reducing the stress on the airframe and protective systems acording
> to the news briefing.  Basically, if there was a way to reduce the
> temperature by any other method, they would do it rather than expose the
> shuttle to higher temps.  Of course, there are always things that weren't
> thought of so maybe there is an idea out there that was never thought of in
> their quest for lower temp re-entries???
> 
> ---
> Rick Huebner
> rick at rhuebner.com
> http://ditchdoctor.dyndns.org:15001
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Jeff Hubbs" <hbbs at attbi.com>
> To: <ale at ale.org>
> Sent: Tuesday, February 04, 2003 11:40 PM
> Subject: Re: [ale] OT: Space Shuttle Columbia
> 
> 
> > > 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
> >
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