rdale - 24/6/2007 8:57 PMWhat would the "hardware" be "saying" in this instance?
johng - 25/6/2007 10:08 AMYou know, after I read this thread, I spent some time on youtube looking at landing videos and regardless of orbiter or mission, they all have some time lag between the two mains, with the right one deploying last. Looks like a non-event to me.
DaveS - 24/6/2007 1:11 PM I have attached an MP3 of the MLG doors slamming shut, where you can really hear the delay between the left and right doors being closed. There's a whopping 1.25 second difference between both doors, with the right MLG door closing first and the left door closing last.
I have attached an MP3 of the MLG doors slamming shut, where you can really hear the delay between the left and right doors being closed. There's a whopping 1.25 second difference between both doors, with the right MLG door closing first and the left door closing last.
If I'm not mistaken, the MLG and NLG are deployed entirely by gravity, and are incapable of retracting themselves. I don't have Dennis Jenkins' book in front of me, but I'm mostly certain that I've read that locking the gear in place and locking the doors shut is done entirely by workers. It wouldn't surprise me that there was a delay.
It makes some sense - why have the weight and complexity of all the hydraulics to retract the landing gear, when it will only ever need to be done while workers were swarming over the vehicle anyway?
OV-106 - 24/6/2007 7:43 PMThe orbiter would not survive a belly landing. Glide slope and landing speeds are much steeper and higher, respectively. than a regular aircraft. The gear have "thrusters" on them as well. This is what they are called but do not think of them as the rocket-type thrusters. They provide an extra push to extend the gear if necessary. As for deploying the chute pre-touchdown, that would be a bad idea. The was concerns this was going to happen on STS-95 during approach the scenerios were not good as I recall. This was the flight where the door fell off at launch.
gordo - 1/7/2007 1:09 PMI wonder what were the thoughts going round the MCC when Columbia's telemetry intially reported 2 flat tyres on 107? "this could be an interesting landing?"
gordo - 1/7/2007 1:34 PMthanks for these, very sobering
rkoenn - 4/7/2007 8:43 PMI work mechanisms for NASA on OV-104 which includes the landing gear and tires. We actually own the mechanism and not the hydraulic systems. The delta between the left and right main gear was 1.2 seconds but I have heard nothing about any concerns with this.