Re: The Warm Equations

On 6/28/2024 10:46 AM, Paul S Person wrote:

On Thu, 27 Jun 2024 19:22:49 -0700, Dimensional Traveler
<dtravel@sonic.net> wrote:
 

On 6/27/2024 7:08 PM, Lynn McGuire wrote:

On 6/23/2024 11:37 AM, Ted Nolan <tednolan> wrote:

Interesting to note the way margins of a real-life space venture are run:
>
Two astronauts have been stuck at the ISS for an extra two weeks,
so far, because their ride has flat tires, and it's not a crisis,
and nobody has had to volunteer to step out the airlock.

>
The real question is, there are 7 or 8 people in those tin cans.  Is
there enough food, water, air, and diapers for all of them for another
month ?  Or is SpaceX going to have to send an emergency supply ship ?
>
Can the Boeing Starliner drop without a crew ?  I suspect so.
>

That's kind of a dumb question.  OF COURSE the Starliner can be dropped.
  Undock it, do an EVA to push it a bit and it will eventually "land"
somewhere on the planet.
>
Now, a controlled drop to a specific area.....

 Perhaps a small explosive charge with a timer would be advisable, to
keep it from coming down in one piece. Ideally, it would come down in
zero pieces, providing a nice show as each teeny-tiny splinter burns
up on re-entry.
 At last! A Boeing crash that doesn't kill anybody or do any collateral
damage!

The problem is with the thrusters on the service module which was never meant to survive re-entry[1]. The mission plan included a possibility that the astronauts could remain up to 45 days, and that has been extended to 90. As there is nothing wrong with the crew module they could leave now but the capsule is being used as a test bed. On the ground fixes are being worked, then tested by the astronauts.
They have fixed four out of the five thrusters that failed.
https://www.cnn.com/2024/06/28/science/nasa-boeing-starliner-mission-90-days-scn/index.html
[1]But as we've seen lately that does not mean that it actually will.