Comic Discussion > QUESTIONABLE CONTENT
WCDT December 1-5, 2014 (2845-2849)
hedgie:
--- Quote from: DSL on 06 Dec 2014, 15:06 ---I thought it was the uneven aerodynamic forces resulting from the inflation, then destruction, of the port wing (resulting from the hole in the RCC leading edge from the foam strike at launch) that destroyed Columbia.
--- End quote ---
I wonder if NASA had watched Bebop, that disaster could have been averted.
DSL:
Yes, Cowboy Bebop at his computer could have figured it out.
hedgie:
I was just thinking that the Columbia was in one episode, and nearly burnt up because of a damaged heat tile when rescuing Spike.
cesium133:
--- Quote from: DSL on 06 Dec 2014, 19:14 ---Granted ... My point is that switching from a transfer orbit to a parking orbit, then transfer to a vehicle optimized for atmospheric entry and landing, has got to be a lot less stressful than screaming in direct aboard a.vehicle that's both a long hauler and the reentry vehicle. The analogy's not perfect, but think of flying into the airport, then taking a taxi to where you're actually going instead of trying to land the 767 at the hotel downtown. That's also partly what I mean by "infrastructure."
--- End quote ---
Okay, I think I had misunderstood what you were saying earlier. That's a similar strategy to the one that was used in the Apollo landings, though not exactly the same because the moon doesn't have an atmosphere, where the command module stayed in space and only the landing module went to the surface.
SubaruStephen:
I wonder if NASA has kicked around the idea of a small re-entry-only vehicle, one that can be easily assembled in space that's basically a glider. Instead of coming in like a freaking meteorite (or a flying brick), it just skims the upper atmosphere, using some friction to slow down, but not enough to need Shuttle type heat tiles, and it just orbits the planet a few times untill it loses enough speed to begin its descent and land.
It's probably a dumb idea since I got it after watching a rerun of the BBC TopGear "Scooterman" episode at 4 am today.
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