Shuttle to be tracked by camera.

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Another great idea by nasa, and how much does it cost? And people wonder where all their budget goes to.

space.com...

[edit on 25-3-2005 by ufo3]

nice idea but once the shuttle is launched there is not much i can see able to be done if something goes wrong. the same with landing. i don't see how once the shuttle re-enters atmosphere of any thing being able to be done to help it untill it is prety much ready to land. the crittical time periods to stop a problem is before launch and before re-entry. i would sudgest that a extravehicular check be made before reentry is started. with the possibility of spare parts abord to fix any found problems. rally sports cars all are equiped with some crittical spare parts so that a problem encountered can be delt with.

an aircraft with cameras may catch a potential problem but it most likely would be too late to help.

Didn't they do that allready?

Better to use Radar to track the Shuttle once it reaches orbit

Originally posted by drogo
nice idea but once the shuttle is launched there is not much i can see able to be done if something goes wrong. the same with landing. i don't see how once the shuttle re-enters atmosphere of any thing being able to be done to help it untill it is prety much ready to land. the crittical time periods to stop a problem is before launch and before re-entry. i would sudgest that a extravehicular check be made before reentry is started. with the possibility of spare parts abord to fix any found problems. rally sports cars all are equiped with some crittical spare parts so that a problem encountered can be delt with.

an aircraft with cameras may catch a potential problem but it most likely would be too late to help.

But at least they'll be able to see it!!!

Definitely a good idea, but why so late? Come on, the Shuttle, by design, is forever an experimental vehicle. As such it is critical to capture the broadest possible data set from the experiment to determine opportunities for improvement. IMO damage to the Shuttle is not as bad as the data surrounding that damage being lost due to a lack of effort in data collection. It's helpful to pick up the debris and rebuild, but the cameras could have told a much clearer story if they were in place.

How much attitude adjusting fuel would the Shuttle even have to expend for a slow rollover shortly after achieving orbit? It would allow for a quick visual inspection from camera systems on the ground or in orbit. Gather the data.

Originally posted by chaosrain
How much attitude adjusting fuel would the Shuttle even have to expend for a slow rollover shortly after achieving orbit? It would allow for a quick visual inspection from camera systems on the ground or in orbit. Gather the data.

A visual inspection was not the problem. That could have been done in orbit with the crew going extravehicular. IN fact, some inspections could only be done personally.

Not to metion I highly doubt earth based cameras could get a clear enough picutre of the shuttle while it was in orbit. the best photo we saw of COlumbia only had a 20 feet per pixel resoultion ( I think ) , and that was done by the military