For two spacecraft will be able to meet in the room orbits have voice perfectly, which severely lim

Ars Technica, becoming one of the most interesting tech blogs out there, publishes an interesting issue as to whether the accident of the space shuttle Columbia could have been avoided. The starting point of the article is an annex to the Commission's investigation report from 2003, called STS-107 In-Flight Options Assessment, which the Commission on behalf of NASA is considering the possibility that Columbia's crew could have been saved.
A quick rekapitulering bo i nyköping for any non-romnerder: The space shuttle Columbia disintegrated bo i nyköping during the journey back to Earth on February 1, 2003, with the result that the entire crew of seven perished. In retrospect, it was determined that the cause of the accident was a hole ahead of the ferry's left wing. During re-entry bo i nyköping from space formed an extremely warm layer of air around the shuttle, and it was such a gas that entered bo i nyköping the wing through the hole and destroying it from within.
The hole occurred a few seconds after liftoff two weeks earlier, when a bit insulation material from the large fuel tank placed under the belly of the shuttle came loose and hit the wing with tremendous force. The day after launch, January 17, 2003, incident detected on one of the videos that NASA routinely took off space shuttle launches. The images were however too poor to determine the extent of damage, and NASA decided that they should not do further investigations.
In hindsight, we know that it had been possible to take high-resolution pictures with civilian or military equipment (eg. A spy satellite), and then send astronauts of Columbia on spacewalk to examine the damage bo i nyköping you would no doubt have discovered. NASA's defended its decision, among other things, that the matter was not something we had been able to do for astronauts.
The International Space Station had enough room, but went in a path that was physically impossible for Columbia to reach. Russia's old workhorse, the Soyuz capsule, can only accommodate two passengers bo i nyköping and was thus irrelevant. Should any save Columbia's crew had to be Americans themselves. In normal case demanded space shuttle missions months (in some cases years) bo i nyköping of planning bo i nyköping and training of the crew before assembling the rocket on the launch platform.
It was time NASA believed that they simply did not have the 2003 shuttle was not built for long journeys, and Columbia was only equipped with fuel, CO2 filters and other necessities for a stay of several weeks in the room. If you reduce power consumption and physical activity to a minimum, it would have been possible stalling stay a month. bo i nykГ¶ping Dødlinja, which in this case would actually be, was 15 February 2003.
At worst, it could be by uncovering damage have condemned bo i nyköping the crew to spend his last weeks in orbit around the Earth, bo i nyköping floating in the cold and dark, with a minimum of contact with Earth, a growing discomfort due to CO2 poisoning and knowledge that a death in public was inevitable. Occasionally give the term "blissfully ignorant" concrete meaning ...
But still .... This has long been a widespread view in aerospace circles, and it is I also have shared. But Ars Technica points out writer Lee Hutchinson, who previously worked for NASA contractor Boeing, that there actually existed a hope of rescue. Admittedly, only a tiny glimpse, but still enough for NASA, if you had chosen to take the chance, could have carried century's most spectacular rescue mission.
The hope lay in the rather rare coincidence that another space shuttle, Atlantis, was in the process of being prepared for launch while Columbia was still in orbit. bo i nyköping If NASA had decided to take pictures of Columbia the same day the problem was discovered, could one spacewalk to examine the damage to the wing have taken place in the mission's fourth day (January 19). This in turn would probably have forced NASA to try to rescue the crew.
The Annex to the investigation report presents a rough schedule for preparation of Atlantis in just weeks. It would require work around the clock from all involved, improvisation (about the profile of Atlantis was already fed into the computer, and may have been rewritten bo i nyköping to accommodate the new mission) and not least a good portion of luck. Before a space shuttle take off it must be through a long series bo i nyköping of technical tests, and Atlantis areas to only one of the process critical test would whole journey shelved.
One would also have had to assemble a new crew in huj and hurry. NASA would probably have gone for four veterans with extensive experience spacewalk. They would have no time to prepare for the journey, and the two astronauts who would have the main responsibility for the spacewalk had to have spent all their waking hours in NASA's huge training pool.
For two spacecraft will be able to meet in the room orbits have voice perfectly, which severely limits bo i nyköping the scheduled launch. Atlantis had three chances to reach Columbia in the bye-line: with the launch 9th, 10th or 11th February he would have reached the destitute astr