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I wouldn't write off the shuttle so quickly. It flew 100+ missions, brought up the Hubble and helped fix it, brought up parts of the ISS, etc. Sure it didn't
by tdicola 12y ago
I wouldn't write off the shuttle so quickly. It flew 100+ missions, brought up the Hubble and helped fix it, brought up parts of the ISS, etc. Sure it didn't get past low earth orbit but it did a lot of great stuff.
- otoolep 12y agoBringing up parts to the ISS doesn't count. It's done even less for science than the Shuttle. :-) Richard Feynman expressed great scepticism about the Shuttle, and its scientific value. In his books he writes how he never came across a single scientific paper that referenced it -- check out the chapter titled "Committing Suicide" of "What do you care what other people think?".
- NickPollard 12y agoThe shuttle is a tool. If you're growing crystals in space or trying to measure gravity waves, you don't mention the spacecraft, but you have to get the experimental equipment up there some how or you can't do it. Note: Not saying the Shuttle was the most suitable solution, but I think that 'it was never referenced in papers' is not a useful fact.
- otoolep 12y agoNo way. Anyone -- anyone -- who wrote a paper based on experimental data retrieved on the Shuttle would absolutely list the Shuttle, the flight, and the date. Basing research on data gathered in zero-gravity (technically micro-gravity freefall) environment would be so exceptional that the specific spacecraft would have to be listed. It would be like publishing a particle physics paper using data gathered at the LHC and not mentioning that you got the data from the LHC.