….there must be a good reason for it but it just kills me that the shuttle didn’t go up on time because a fuel indicator isn’t working. Shouldn’t it be full before it goes up and empty when it comes down? Too simple, I know, but still, makes me mutter to myself.
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Simply put, the purpose of the sensor is to detect when the tank is about to go empty so that the main engine pumps can be shut down before hand.
The pumps can break up if they continue to operate with no fuel flow. Pieces flying about everywhere. Not a good thing.
And actually empty coming down is not a valid case as the sensor is in the external tank which is expended shortly after the main engines cut off. It lands in the Indian ocean.
It sounds like it is an intermittent type of failure. The worst kind to solve. If I remember correctly there are three other redundant sensors however the ground rules state that all have to be working properly to commit to launch.
In today’s environment I doubt if NASA would be willing to waive the requirement.
Me, personally, I do not think the thing will ever fly again.
I will, I suppose, recant when it does.
Comment by Michael — 20050720 @ 1553
I thought that the ET burned up on reentry. I guess I’m wrong. Apparently the sensor in question has been glitchy for a while, and they’ve replaced just about every component that they could without finding any that tested bad. Frustrating.
Comment by James Agenbroad — 20050722 @ 1054
The technician inside this engineer says:
“If it ain’t broke I can’t fix it.”
Comment by M. Simon — 20050722 @ 2042
The very first thing that came to mind when this intermittent happened, was an experience I had on a KC-135 in Thailand in 1972. After it had attempted two takeoffs and aborted both, they came in the shop and asked me to go out and check out the problem. It was the APN-59 radar antenna, which intermittently dropped straight down instead of maintaining its orientation, and the rules were that they had to have radar working to fly the missions. It took me nearly 18 hours, with a couple of other guys, to track down and fix the problem, and 3 more takeoff attempts. But we eventually found it. In the middle of a wiring bundle inside the nose radome, about 50 wires thick, there was a wire splice not making good contact. One wire, and it caused a really major incident! That was probably the single hardest job I ever had in all those years in the AF!
Comment by Joe Comer — 20050723 @ 1047
Why don’t they try tapping the gas gauge with their index finger a couple of times. That’s what they do in all the Hollywood movies when a gauge on a mult-billion dollar piece of machiney isn’t working.
Comment by Nick — 20050726 @ 0009