Count Tuesday out for a shuttle launch. At least that's what I'm starting to think.
Engineers were hopeful earlier this week that electrical interference caused by subtle grounding problems might explain why one of four hydrogen fuel sensors in Discovery's external tank failed to respond properly to a pre-launch test July 13.
At it turned out, the three grounding problems were very minor - 0.2 milli-ohms of resistance or less - and engineers were never able to duplicate the unexpected behavior of ECO sensor No. 2. As such, the problem remains an "unexplained anomaly."
They are fueling the tank on Tuesday. That's when we'll find out if the sensor glitch is still there or not. It means that they've decided to launch even though they really don't know what the cause of the glitch was.
The test failed to prove that the grounding was the cause of the problem. You'd figure it should follow that one of the remaining causes is the real one. The only other one publicly talked about is electromagnetic interference coming from the new heaters installed on the external tank to remove ice build ups.
Well, we'll see what happens.
Either way, I still think they'll launch before the end of the year. But Robot Guy's prediction that the Shuttle will never fly again is seeming more and more prolific lately.
If only they had someone with your know-how at the helm of this multi-billion dollar sack of bolts..
ReplyDeleteI think that's where they went wrong in the first place.
I don't know anything. I just know some basics of Engineering, and that's it. I'm not officially an "Engineer" until April of next year (God willing!).
ReplyDeleteThe real Engineers at NASA are the ones people should be listening to.
The problem is that NASA managers aren't. Engineers make testing requests only to get turned down by managers.
You see, Engineers are control freaks. They don't like loose ends. And these sensors are huge loose ends.
Now I know that it's only one sensor out of the 4 malfunctioning - but that wasn't consistent in the early testing months ago that was brushed off by NASA.
And yes, there is an error checking algorithm in place in the control system to make sure that even if the sensors fail the fuel will still be shut off - but how many times has that system been tested in actual launch conditions?
Also they don't know the actual cause... This is the point where Engineers have nightmares of it being something else they completely didn't think of...