Fri, Oct 10, 2003
This Could Be Easier Than First Thought
NASA engineers,
scientists and astronauts may have a better way. Instead of a
high-tech, high-cost, high-flying application that employs the
shuttles' robot arms, space-walking astronauts could simply use
something we all probably have at home: a foam paint brush.
It's exactly the contemplation of developing new technology that
stumped NASA from putting a repair kit on shuttles in the first
place. The space agency had considered putting kits on board, but
decided that the tools and the complexity of the space walk would
simply put such a program out of reach.
But the Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB) insists
that an in-flight repair capability is essential to NASA's "Return
To Flight" program.
So, after taking another look at the problem, O'Keefe said
engineers have decided that patching a heat shield hole may be
"elegantly simple."
Here's the plan now
under consideration: Experts have developed an applicator that
would squirt two compounds into a heat shield puncture or tear. The
compounds would chemically combine, forming a patch that would
expand when heated by the friction of re-entry.
"The easiest way to spread the compound without having it stick
to the instrument turns out to be a simple thing — a foam
brush," O'Keefe said. It's the kind of brush commonly available at
your local paint and hardware store and is routinely used by
millions of homeowners when painting their houses.
O'Keefe said the compound has been tested with an electrical arc
that heats the surface in question to 3,000 degrees. That's the
temperature shuttle heat shields have to endure during shuttle
re-entry. Astronauts, he said, are testing application of the
compound onboard the "vomit comet," a KC135 flown in a way to give
a few seconds of relative weightlessness inside the cabin.
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