Future Robotic Shuttles?

A thought occurred to me today, catching up on the status of the ISS EVAs to replace the broken ammonia pump (sorry I know it's old
news, but I've been busy) that without the shuttle large pieces of broken hardware might collect around the station over time unless
missions are tasked to de-orbit them. And a destructive de-orbit of broken hardware will take the mysteries of their failure
with them.

Again, over time, the inability to return large objects via the shuttle will have an impact. Something to consider. Maybe the old
robotic Buran will see a comeback?

Dave

Buran is long dead and buried. The more likely option is that a more capable
successor to the likes of Dragon might have the down-mass capability to
return failed ORUs from the ISS US segment. But that's dependent on the
overall lifetime of the ISS from now: is it going to be retired after 2020,
or get extended beyond? If it's retired as early as 2020 then there would
likely be no incentive to redevelop the sort of return capability the
Shuttle allowed, because the operational lifetime of such a new spacecraft
would be too short to justify the investment.

Eddie Lyons
Portsmouth, UK


"David Spain" wrote in message
...
A thought occurred to me today, catching up on the status of the ISS EVAs
to replace the broken ammonia pump (sorry I know it's old news, but I've
been busy) that without the shuttle large pieces of broken hardware might
collect around the station over time unless missions are tasked to de-orbit
them. And a destructive de-orbit of broken hardware will take the mysteries
of their failure
with them.

Again, over time, the inability to return large objects via the shuttle
will have an impact. Something to consider. Maybe the old robotic Buran
will see a comeback?

Dave

On Sep 11, 10:10*am, "Eddie Lyons" wrote:
Buran is long dead and buried. The more likely option is that a more capable
successor to the likes of Dragon might have the down-mass capability to
return failed ORUs from the ISS US segment. But that's dependent on the
overall lifetime of the ISS from now: is it going to be retired after 2020,
or get extended beyond? If it's retired as early as 2020 then there would
likely be no incentive to redevelop the sort of return capability the
Shuttle allowed, because the operational lifetime of such a new spacecraft
would be too short to justify the investment.

Eddie Lyons
Portsmouth, UK

"David Spain" wrote in message

...



A thought occurred to me today, catching up on the status of the ISS EVAs
to replace the broken ammonia pump (sorry I know it's old news, but I've
been busy) that without the shuttle large pieces of broken hardware might
collect around the station over time unless missions are tasked to de-orbit
them. And a destructive de-orbit of broken hardware will take the mysteries
of their failure
with them.

Again, over time, the inability to return large objects via the shuttle
will have an impact. Something to consider. Maybe the old robotic Buran
will see a comeback?

Dave- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

a obvious solution would of been converting the shuttle to unmaned or
minimal manned and continue flying.

this could of retained the jobs and capabilities.

In article , nospam@
127.0.0.1 says...

A thought occurred to me today, catching up on the status of the ISS EVAs to replace the broken ammonia pump (sorry I know it's old
news, but I've been busy) that without the shuttle large pieces of broken hardware might collect around the station over time unless
missions are tasked to de-orbit them. And a destructive de-orbit of broken hardware will take the mysteries of their failure
with them.

Again, over time, the inability to return large objects via the shuttle will have an impact. Something to consider. Maybe the old
robotic Buran will see a comeback?

No. Too expensive to resurect.

Jeff
--
The only decision you'll have to make is
Who goes in after the snake in the morning?