Selling Columbia wreckage...

[Wombat]

Originally posted by SpiralDragon
i heard mention that there are still some astronuts op on the IS... knowing that all shutel lunches have been halted how are they going to come back down?.....

There's no huge rush. They have the Soyuz if they need it. The biggest problem is getting them the stuff they need for experiments and maintenance - NPR quoted someone as saying the astronauts have all the food they need to make it to July if they must.

[Ajax]

That is really messed up.

[KvHagedorn]

Originally posted by Greebe
All the while those who are officially collecting this stuff have handled materials with their bare hands...

Well, I don't think they are lying about toxicity. I remember the shuttle being left alone for awhile after landing, with the astronauts inside, so that toxic gases could dissipate. Surely they would have dissipated by this point however.

[Greebe]

When NASA claims that their is toxic fuel residue on these parts, one must ask how is that possible when the shuttles engines are run off of LH2 and LO2?

Oh I absolutley have no doubt there is toxicity issues (never questioned that), but not from what/where they are refering to.

The point I was trying to make is that these so called recovery professionals are doing exactly what they told everyone else not todo.. kinda gave all of us who were warned not to handle the debri an excuse todo as they please regardless.

[Nowhere]

Wombat, they have also Progress. Actually, it is the main vehicle for resupply the ISS. Basically station doesn't need the space shuttle to maintain useability of itself.

[ZokesPro]

Off Topic:

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[Ajax]

18 times the speed of light? WOW. Albert Einstein would be impressed. How fast did the Starship Enterprise go?

[Byock]

Uh, Warp 9. that would be 9 times the speed of light, I think.

[cjolley]

Originally posted by Greebe
When NASA claims that their is toxic fuel residue on these parts, one must ask how is that possible when the shuttles engines are run off of LH2 and LO2?

Oh I absolutley have no doubt there is toxicity issues (never questioned that), but not from what/where they are refering to.

The point I was trying to make is that these so called recovery professionals are doing exactly what they told everyone else not todo.. kinda gave all of us who were warned not to handle the debri an excuse todo as they please regardless.

No, No, No!
The APUs do not run off of the same fuel as the mains.

They run on Hydrazine.

http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/RT1997/6000/6920viterna.htm

http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/302012.html

Very, very toxic!
chuck

[K6-III]

Re: Selling Columbia wreckage...

Originally posted by Evildead666
I find this apalling, and wonder whether the people involved have any idea what type of biological/chemical and radioactive material they think isn't going to harm their health, IS actually present.
Shuttles carry nuclear batteries and such i think....

Anyway, ethically, its just a big NO!

I just wanna see what most people think.

http://www.tomshardware.com/technews/index.html#004824

The Shuttle does not use nuclear batteries. All spacecraft since Gemini have used fuel cells....

[Nowhere]

all american spacecraft that is...

[thop]

LOL the 18x Lightspeed thing is funny.

[Ozbreeze]

sad that people are taking this so lightly as to sell or even joke about selling those shuttle pieces.....

[Jon P. Inghram]

Technically, some Apollo missions carried RTG's, but only as power for the little research stations they left on the moon.

[Greebe]

Chuck I never said SRB's... the shuttle itself runs off of LO2/LH2.

Yes, Yes, Yes!