Question General Spaceflight Q&A

BlueDragon8144

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Ken Mattingly didn't either. I forget which mission he flew for the shuttle, but it was one of the early ones. Fred Haise flew shuttle landings before it took of into space for testing, though he never actually flew one into space.
 

BlueDragon8144

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anyway, the CSM and LM John flew weren't painted, so you can't use that statement :p
 

Urwumpe

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Ken Mattingly flew both on STS-4 and STS-51-C as commander.
 

Urwumpe

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He only had a full crew on STS-51-C... also it was a DoD mission. During STS-4, the crew size was still 2.
 

BlueDragon8144

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ok, fine. But not the entire thing was painted like the external tank was. Either way, NASA does have a point in the paint being really heavy. 270kg is still a lot of weight, and when the ISS had to be constructed, a new tank had to be made because the old one was still too heavy even without that paint.
 

ryan

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ok, fine. But not the entire thing was painted like the external tank was. Either way, NASA does have a point in the paint being really heavy. 270kg is still a lot of weight, and when the ISS had to be constructed, a new tank had to be made because the old one was still too heavy even without that paint.

It's a shame, paint could be so heavy, thats just like saying heres a feather dont hurt yourself.
 

BlueDragon8144

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oh well, just be glad the tank isn't pink in color like the X-15A-2 was before it was painted white.
 

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What is more important: 270 kg mass more mean a multiple of these 270 kg in form of payload mass, which can't reach orbit.
 

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Yes, I think it was only painted for improving it's boil-off properties, a factor which was pretty minimal anyway later.
 

BlueDragon8144

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SRB's are packed enough already, and you probably seen whats going on with a 5 segmented one for Ares. It will also cause the costs to send up a satellite to go higher, with the added fuel. Thrust can't really be changed with the SRB's either, as it is solid fuel, and if you add fuel, you also add weight.
 

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They could add more fuel to the SRBs so it burns longer, and to add more thrust to it.

Sorry, but impossible for SRBs. You can only remove fuel from solid rocket motors, but not add additional fuel. The same with liquid rockets, which have a maximum fuel mass for lift-off, and can off-load fuel for lighter payloads.

Also, adding a new segment to the SRBs only increases thrust, while burn time is almost the same for the same mix of fuel and the same thickness of the fuel. That means also a complete redesign and requalification of the SRBs, as the chamber pressure inside the SRBs will increase and all O-seals and segment joints will no longer be secure. The new 5 segment SRBs look similar to the old ones, but are in fact complete new designs, which had been under development for the Shuttle since 1990 or so.

The next problem: The SRBs are one of the most ineffective rocket engines you can get. They have only two important qualities: Lots of thrust and they are pretty reliable.
 

ryan

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Will Peggy Whitson ever go back into space? she does still work for NASA, i wont be surprised if they dont choose her to stay for Orion or even Constellation. She's as much of the ISS then any other module.
 

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Anyway, the paint was dead weight that turned out not to actually be necessary, so it was dispensed with.
 
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