Cardman wrote:

On 26 Jan 2004 13:53:25 GMT, "Jorge R. Frank"
wrote:


In hypervelocity impact tests at JSC, Transhab proved to be more impact
resistant than the aluminum hab it would have replaced. I don't think you
need to worry about crew punctures.

Then I won't, but metal is never that good concerning impacts compared
to a layered textile approach.

The real quations is: "How did it do compared to the combined hull and
meteoroid/debris shield actually flown on the lab?"

And then that answer has to be qualified by the results of:

"Is it worth it to toss out years of design and development of the aluminum
structures chosen as the baseline, especially in light of the
manufacturing, test and evaluation infrastructure already built up to
support that choice of aluminum structure?"

The subtext to all of this discussion of Transhab-like stuff goes back to
the not-so-secret fights between JSC (which wanted a bigger piece of the
space station pie after Space Station Freedom Work Package 1 - including
all the pressurized elements - was given to MSFC) and MSFC (which saw any
concept for a pressurized station element from JSC as a sour grapes/spoiled
sport attempt by JSC to grab back what it had lost in space station work).

The real problem with Transhab wasn't technical but it was the fact that all
of the preliminary (and most if not all of the final) design work for the
"standard" hard-shell Hab modules was already completed by the time the
Transhab folks really got going. A *lot* had been invested already and
time, money, and political capital was short in the program already.
Remember, test module structures had already been been fab'd and were under
test, program PDRs were completed, CDRs were planned or underway, many subs
were having CDRs of their own for components and subassemblies. Integrated
ECLSS systems tests had been ongoing at MSFC for several years, a whole
module manufacturing high bay/Class 10,000 clean room had been constructed
to build these modules. The whole process was *way* past just inflating an
empty shell in a vacuum chamber. Anything which derailed the final
design/dev process was not accepted lightly.


--
Herb Schaltegger, B.S., J.D.
Reformed Aerospace Engineer
Remove invalid nonsense for email.