Orbital Boom Sensor System (OBSS) questions...

A few questions about the tile-scanning procedu

Are the astronauts going to have to hand-fly the scan of the orbiter's
belly, or has this been automated? I assume that they'll want to dock
the OBSS and move it into initial position by hand...

How long is the scan expected to take?

Will the divot scan be done at JSC, or by the orbiter crew?

Just curious how much crew time is going to be devoted to this on the
first (and subsequent) flights...

--
Reed Snellenberger
GPG KeyID: 5A978843
rsnellenberger-at-houston.rr.com

Reed Snellenberger wrote in
:

A few questions about the tile-scanning procedu

Are the astronauts going to have to hand-fly the scan of the orbiter's
belly, or has this been automated? I assume that they'll want to dock
the OBSS and move it into initial position by hand...

Last I heard, the scan was hand-flown and was planned to be so for at least
the early flights. That could have changed, though.

How long is the scan expected to take?

7.5 hours total, of which 6 is the actual scan.

Will the divot scan be done at JSC, or by the orbiter crew?

Not sure what you mean here. The crew will be flying the arm and recording
the data, but the subsequent image analysis will be done at JSC.

Just curious how much crew time is going to be devoted to this on the
first (and subsequent) flights...

It will be a lot more time-consuming on the first two flights (at least)
than on the subsequent ones. Last I heard, full leading-edge scans will
only be done until the wing leading edge sensor network is validated. After
that, the scans will only cover areas of known or suspected impacts.

--
JRF

Reply-to address spam-proofed - to reply by E-mail,
check "Organization" (I am not assimilated) and
think one step ahead of IBM.

Jorge R. Frank wrote:
Reed Snellenberger wrote:


A few questions about the tile-scanning procedu

Are the astronauts going to have to hand-fly the scan of the orbiter's
belly, or has this been automated? I assume that they'll want to dock
the OBSS and move it into initial position by hand...

Last I heard, the scan was hand-flown and was planned to be so for at least
the early flights. That could have changed, though.


Ugh... sounds like a pretty boring job... and hard on the hands, unless
they can just pre-set a "lateral 50 feet" motion and only provide inputs
when they reach the end of a motion.


How long is the scan expected to take?

7.5 hours total, of which 6 is the actual scan.


Will the divot scan be done at JSC, or by the orbiter crew?

Not sure what you mean here. The crew will be flying the arm and recording
the data, but the subsequent image analysis will be done at JSC.


That's what I was wondering -- whether the analysis would be done
real-time by the crew, or independently (possibly semi-real-time) by
folks on the ground. But if they're going to be hand-flying it, I
suppose the crew will be keeping their eyes on the monitors anyway.


Just curious how much crew time is going to be devoted to this on the
first (and subsequent) flights...

It will be a lot more time-consuming on the first two flights (at least)
than on the subsequent ones. Last I heard, full leading-edge scans will
only be done until the wing leading edge sensor network is validated. After
that, the scans will only cover areas of known or suspected impacts.


Thanks, Jorge.

--
Reed Snellenberger
GPG KeyID: 5A978843
rsnellenberger-at-houston.rr.com

Reed Snellenberger wrote in
:

Jorge R. Frank wrote:
Reed Snellenberger wrote:


A few questions about the tile-scanning procedu

Are the astronauts going to have to hand-fly the scan of the
orbiter's belly, or has this been automated? I assume that they'll
want to dock the OBSS and move it into initial position by hand...

Last I heard, the scan was hand-flown and was planned to be so for at
least the early flights. That could have changed, though.


Ugh... sounds like a pretty boring job... and hard on the hands,
unless they can just pre-set a "lateral 50 feet" motion and only
provide inputs when they reach the end of a motion.

It's not that bad, actually, due to limitations in the softwa depth
analysis is not currently possible while the boom is moving. So the scan is
not continuous; it's a series of move-stop-analyze steps. The arm operator
can rest his hands while the boom is stopped.

--
JRF

Reply-to address spam-proofed - to reply by E-mail,
check "Organization" (I am not assimilated) and
think one step ahead of IBM.