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How can Storage Help Space?
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How can Storage Help Space?
Posted 28 May 2010The NASA space shuttle Atlantis has landed safely, after its 5th and final mission to service and re-fit the Hubble telescope. The landing was a risky one; it had already been delayed due to adverse weather conditions at the Kennedy Space Center, Florida so the landing was re-scheduled for California, where everything went smoothly.
The mission involved over 5 spacewalks, new instrument installations, instrument repairs and the installation of new batteries. The only disappointment was the failure to restore the high resolution channel on the Advanced Camera for Surveys – accountable for the numerous remarkable images beamed from Hubble to earth. Atlantis was scheduled to be retired in 2008 but was called back into service for the 2010 mission.
Given that this was the final mission for the space shuttle one must ask the question “what will be done with the shuttle itself?” After travelling over 120 million miles over its 25 year life span, some would argue that it is likely to only fit for scrap! Storage is the likely answer to this problem – at least until the fate of this iconic technological structure has been decided. Some of the parts are earmarked to be use in research and development of future shuttles such as, studying the effects 120 million miles through space and the earth’s atmosphere has on various component parts. Regardless of what actually happens, where will all of these component parts go in the mean time? Storage is the ideal and most obvious solution. Security is likely to be at the forefront of any decision made so finding a storage facility in the USA with state-of-the-art systems shouldn’t be a problem.
Storage would also be an advantage for the many items stored within the shuttle itself on its final journey. Hundreds of commemorative items (flags, badges, charity t-shirts......the list goes no!) where engineered into the actual structure of the shuttle to ensure sufficient space of all of the vital equipment was left. The process of taking mementos into space gives an ordinary everyday product mass significance so merely discarding these items when the shuttle is retired is NOT an option. Storing these in a secure self storage facility would be the ideal solution; many of these items could be auctioned off for charitable benefit, given as gifts to state visitors, the list could go on and on.
Storage can therefore be the solution to many a space problem!
