Solving future shuttle missions
Feb. 4th, 2003 02:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
acroyearPersonally, my thought is to follow Lucas's one good idea from The Phantom Menace -- droids. Not so much to replace humans entirely, but small robots like the robotic window-cleaners and vacuum machines in people's homes, that during a trip come out and just skim lightly across the wing, covering inch by inch every tile and door joint (including the wheel caps).
it would take time, but by the time a 14 day mission was finishing up they'd be done...then any problems could be handled by a repair crew (we KNOW now that every shuttle will have in-flight repair capabilities no matter what...congress will demand that much after all this) on the last day before landing.
I'd have 2 at a time, one on each wing, to keep mass symmetry so that maneuvers don't have to worry about one wing being heavier than the other on a turn (there's no wind resistence, but the extra mass on a wing does still affect what the engines can do). they'd hold a clear but close distance off the wing (so as to not damage tiles themselves) by magnetics, kinda like VINCent did in Disney's The Black Hole.
SciFi's actually given us the solution to this problem...i figure we ought to use it.
it would take time, but by the time a 14 day mission was finishing up they'd be done...then any problems could be handled by a repair crew (we KNOW now that every shuttle will have in-flight repair capabilities no matter what...congress will demand that much after all this) on the last day before landing.
I'd have 2 at a time, one on each wing, to keep mass symmetry so that maneuvers don't have to worry about one wing being heavier than the other on a turn (there's no wind resistence, but the extra mass on a wing does still affect what the engines can do). they'd hold a clear but close distance off the wing (so as to not damage tiles themselves) by magnetics, kinda like VINCent did in Disney's The Black Hole.
SciFi's actually given us the solution to this problem...i figure we ought to use it.
