"Scott Hedrick" wrote in
:


"TVDad Jim" wrote in message
oups.com...
Maybe I'm being a pedant, but all these AP stories about the cleaning
of the tile gap fillers sound a bit over-the-top.

Just as important, since NASA was considering work on that thermal
blanket, why wasn't that decision made *prior* to this latest
spacewalk, so the problem could have been taken care of at the same
time, and thus avoid an additional spacewalk? At worst, taking care of
a tile gap filler should not have been expected to take more than 30
minutes each. Even allowing time to move, it shouldn't have taken more
than a couple of hours. Considering the pre-breathing and other prep
time for a spacewalk, how could it possibly have been more efficient
to take care of the gap fillers in one spacewalk and the blanket in
another?

Efficiency is not the point. The fact is, the folks worried about the
thermal blanket didn't know prior to EVA-3 what they would even have the
crew *do* to the thermal blanket - they were considering several mutually-
incompatible options, all of which had the *potential* to make the
situation worse. So the MMT was not inclined to rush them into a decision
in order to squeeze the thermal blanket task in at the end of EVA-3, and
possibly do more harm than good.

--
JRF

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