Question General Spaceflight Q&A

[Orbinaut Pete]

What's the weight/volume limit for personal effects?

Each Space Shuttle astronaut is allowed to take one Personal Preference Kit (PPK) with them into space.

The contents of a PPK must be limited to 20 separate items.
The total weight of a PPK must not exceed 0.682 kilograms (1.5 pounds).
The volume of a PPK must be contained in a 12.82cm x 20.51cm x 5.13cm bag provided by NASA.

 

[ijuin]

1.5 pounds (under 700 grams) seems kind of light given that most astronauts will consume at least three kilograms of food and water per day, meaning that skipping a single meal would free up enough mass budget to double that personal allowance.

 

[tblaxland]

skipping a single meal would free up enough mass budget to double that personal allowance.

Your meals are packed for you anyway, so you would not have the option of leaving one on the ground. I doubt you would want to anyway - when you are working 14 hour days, few things are more important than a meal.

 

[ijuin]

Well, more my point is that the personal allowance is insignificant compared to the mass of everything else that the astronauts are carrying--if mass budgets were so tight that a crewmember could not carry a single extra kilogram of stuff, then they would ALSO be so tight that a crewmember could be kicked off the mission for having one kilogram too much body fat.

 

[garyw]

Well, more my point is that the personal allowance is insignificant compared to the mass of everything else that the astronauts are carrying--if mass budgets were so tight that a crewmember could not carry a single extra kilogram of stuff, then they would ALSO be so tight that a crewmember could be kicked off the mission for having one kilogram too much body fat.

Wrong. The PPK is your PERSONAL preference kit. Things like music, CD players, ipods, etc are either already on the ISS or not included into the PPK.

Most astronauts take family trinkets or other personal effects just so they can say they have flown in space.

PPK limits are very closey enforced as it's a perk of spaceflight and nothing at all to do with the sort of "personal" items you'd pack for a road, rail or air trip.

 

[ijuin]

Ah, I was more of the impression that the PPK was the entirety of the non-assigned items that a crewmember would have (e.g. extra books or software disks or clothing), which would have made it more comparable to the personal gear allowance given to military personnel (remember you have to fit it all in your duffel bags).

 

[Urwumpe]

Also: The limits for the PPK have also a serious political background - the Apollo 15 Stamp scandal.

 

[ryan]

Hey guys, i have two questions.
Does debris of discared ETs get discovered or is it to much over ocean to be recovered, in this case i mean a farmer finding something in his field not somebody whose actually looking for the ET.
Also, how many lost sets of SRB have there been? I wouldnt expect much recently becuase it seems like the sort of thing you could master over the years, especially the length STS has been operating .
Thanks.
Ryan.

 

[Urwumpe]

The ETs crash right in the middle of the Indian Ocean, there are no farmers anywhere to recover it - the only parts that reach ground are the most massive metal parts anyway.

 

[DaveS]

The ETs crash right in the middle of the Indian Ocean, there are no farmers anywhere to recover it - the only parts that reach ground are the most massive metal parts anyway.

Not the Indian ocean. The Pacific. The Indian ocean was the impact zone for ETs when they still were doing standard insetions. But now they're doing direct insertions which moves the impact zone further downrange and east, into the Pacific.

 

[Urwumpe]

Not the Indian ocean. The Pacific. The Indian ocean was the impact zone for ETs when they still were doing standard insetions. But now they're doing direct insertions which moves the impact zone further downrange and east, into the Pacific.

Still, it should be pretty hard having the ET debris crash on land.

 

[sunshine135]

I recall reading somewhere that fishermen off of Hawaii found charred debris from the ET, but not much survives the atmospheric reentry. I don't believe anything that is found is even remotely recognizable, so I have doubts they even found anything.

I have seen pictures of the ET debris burning up in the atmosphere taken from Hawaii. I think it would be neat to see a video of the ET from jettison to burn up.

---------- Post added at 08:01 AM ---------- Previous post was at 07:55 AM ----------

I have a question about the forward attachment point of the Orbiter.

Someone may even have a picture. I understand that it is some form of bolt that shears off at the ET sep, and is flush with the bottom of the Orbiter. Also, I've seen the picture of the new bolt on the bottom of the Orbiter coming out of the processing facility. Does anyone have a picture of the "socket" that the bolt goes in? How is the sheared bolt removed after flight? If seems like a very small point, yet it does the trick every time.

Thanks,

 

[tblaxland]

I have a question about the forward attachment point of the Orbiter.

Someone may even have a picture. I understand that it is some form of bolt that shears off at the ET sep, and is flush with the bottom of the Orbiter. Also, I've seen the picture of the new bolt on the bottom of the Orbiter coming out of the processing facility. Does anyone have a picture of the "socket" that the bolt goes in? How is the sheared bolt removed after flight? If seems like a very small point, yet it does the trick every time.

These are the best I could find:

A description of the separation system: http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/shuttle/reference/shutref/orbiter/sep/sepsystem.html
A picture of the bearing socket on the shuttle: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kreuzader/1740248169/
A picture of the shear bolt assembly: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kreuzader/1740248169/
An illustration of the forward bipod: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kreuzader/1740248169/

 

[David413]

I have a question about the forward attachment point of the Orbiter.

Someone may even have a picture. I understand that it is some form of bolt that shears off at the ET sep, and is flush with the bottom of the Orbiter. Also, I've seen the picture of the new bolt on the bottom of the Orbiter coming out of the processing facility. Does anyone have a picture of the "socket" that the bolt goes in? How is the sheared bolt removed after flight? If seems like a very small point, yet it does the trick every time.

Thanks,

At sep a "frangible" nut is severed by pyrotectnics in the Orbiter. This releases the "bolt", which is then spring-driven into a catch on the ET. So, the only part that has to be removed is the "nut" within the Orbiter. The bolt is lost along with the ET.

See the attached drawing:

 

[sunshine135]

tblaxland and David413,

Thank you very much! I actually understand the system much better now. The attached drawing makes the attachment quite understandable. The two pistons place pressure on the nut, causing the nut to break and causing the spring loaded bolt to retract on the ET like a reverse turkey popper! I'd still love to see a close up video of that whole system working. I also assume that bolt being broken is the "thunk" heard when the ET separates in orbit.

Since I imagine that the frangible nut debris are cleaned out of the attachment point socket in the OPF, I also assume that there is some type of interior access panel either inside the nose wheel well or on the lower deck that allows clean out and installation of the new nut/bolt assembly. I'd also like to see someone performing that installation. Very interesting!

On a sidebar David- I love your Shuttle Fleet. It has provided me with many hours of education and enjoyment!

Kind Regards,

 

[guitarist473]

shuttle launch callouts

befor i ask i know theres a post about this on the forum but the links dead and instead of resurecting old posts i thought id post a new one
does anyone no all the call outs during a shuttle launch or where i can find a list of them
thanks

 

[tblaxland]

We had a large discussion on these on the old forums: http://orbit.m6.net/forum/Default.aspx?g=posts&t=17399 The link is broken ATM, not sure if we'll ever see it again. A lot of the callouts can be deciphered by reading the ascent checklists here: http://www.nasa.gov/centers/johnson/news/flightdatafiles/index.html

 

[Brycesv1]

being an astronaught would be awesome, with the exception of the manuals... those guys know every nut and bolt and weld on their ships

 

[Dambuster]

Sorry if this is the wrong place, but I can't find a better place and I don't really want a whole new thread for this.

I was just looking at the pictures of today's STS-130 Shuttle launch, and towards the bottom of this picture you can see a series of 6 lines. Can someone tell me what they are?

 

[RisingFury]

There are 7...