From tcoffee at MIT.EDU Wed May 3 15:41:52 2006 From: tcoffee at MIT.EDU (Thomas Coffee) Date: Wed, 03 May 2006 15:41:52 -0400 Subject: [Mars-discuss] Fwd: NASA Rounds Up Roadkill Message-ID: <6.2.3.4.2.20060503153843.04c6fdc0@hesiod> If you thought NASA had problems clearing out birds roosting in the VAB ... >NASA is trying to rid the Kennedy Space Center of vultures after the >shuttle struck one of the large birds during lift-off last year on >the first flight after the Columbia disaster. The space center has >set up what it calls a "road kill posse" to quickly clear as many >carcasses as possible from the 6,000-acre site, in hopes of >encouraging the vulture population to relocate by cutting off its >food supply. Discovery did not suffer any damage from the vulture >collision or from the chunks of foam that fell off its fuel tank >during launch. But NASA fears collisions with the large, >carrion-eating birds could damage shuttle heat shields, leaving the >spacecraft vulnerable to an accident like the one that killed >Columbia's seven astronauts. About 500 lbs. of animal carcasses have >been removed since the program began two weeks ago, the center said. - Thomas -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mailman.mit.edu/pipermail/mars-discuss/attachments/20060503/58d71f40/attachment.htm From taoyue at MIT.EDU Wed May 3 16:00:11 2006 From: taoyue at MIT.EDU (Tao Yue) Date: Wed, 3 May 2006 16:00:11 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [Mars-discuss] Fwd: NASA Rounds Up Roadkill In-Reply-To: <6.2.3.4.2.20060503153843.04c6fdc0@hesiod> References: <6.2.3.4.2.20060503153843.04c6fdc0@hesiod> Message-ID: On Wed, 3 May 2006, Thomas Coffee wrote: > But NASA fears collisions with the large, carrion-eating birds could > damage shuttle heat shields, leaving the spacecraft vulnerable to an > accident like the one that killed Columbia's seven astronauts. Sure makes the capsule approach look more attractive, doesn't it? With Soyuz and Apollo, launch shroud covers the spacecraft (including the all-important reentry heat protection) until the launch vehicle has exited the atmosphere. Another insight from playing (if that's the right verb) the Orbiter space flight simulator ... -- Tao Yue