Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: SRB solutions
Message-ID: <1989Oct25.174150.4049@utzoo.uucp>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
References: <5474@umd5.umd.edu> <5149@uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu> <12973@s.ms.uky.edu> <1989Oct18.172311.22863@utzoo.uucp> <838@cybaswan.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 25 Oct 89 17:41:50 GMT

In article <838@cybaswan.UUCP> iiitsh@cybaswan.UUCP (Steve Hosgood) writes:
>>It's perhaps not theoretically impossible, but it would require considerable
>>redesign.  (For one thing, the SRBs would have to stay under some sort of
>>control for at least a few seconds to avoid problems like having their
>>exhaust hit the external tank, and they rely on the orbiter for control
>>at present.)
>
>Couldn't they have fins fitted to give them some degree of independant
>steering?

The problem is not steering; they already have gimballed nozzles for that.
The trouble is that they're not equipped to make their own decisions.
Normally they just take orders from the orbiter.  Yes, this could be fixed...
at some substantial cost and probably at some weight penalty.

Effort spent proposing complex redesigns of the SRBs to make them a bit
more manageable is probably better spent proposing liquid-fuel boosters,
which have a lot of other advantages.
-- 
A bit of tolerance is worth a  |     Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
megabyte of flaming.           | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu
