Unanswered Questions
2,053 questions with no upvoted or accepted answers
16
votes
1answer
502 views
Have there ever been any incidents where something valuable was unintentionally throw out with the trash?
In "What do astronauts do with their trash on the ISS?", a commentator asked the title question and was encouraged to make it a new question, but apparently never did.
The linked question is ...
14
votes
0answers
307 views
What paper size do they use on the International Space Station?
We know they have at least one printer on the ISS – that's NASA-supplied so it would be in the US Orbital Segment. Presumably there is a printer in the Russian Orbital Segment as well. (Mir had a ...
14
votes
1answer
337 views
How much does the ISS "banana" or flex under the constantly changing conditions of solar heating?
This answer to Do antennae on the ISS have to constantly move to maintain data links? discusses some of the challenges precisely pointing an antenna mounted to the ISS exterior. While the ISSs orbit ...
14
votes
0answers
338 views
How did "the kid" (John Meisenheimer) calculate that there was a wave in the jet stream and Explorer 1 would be okay to launch?
The tough but timely question NASA at sIxty years, will there be a new moonshot mandate? links to the NASA YouTube video NASA 60th: How It All Began which shows a lot of really nice, historical file ...
13
votes
1answer
529 views
Where would the Pascal B manhole cover be now?
As part of the Operation Plumbbob series of nuclear tests, on August 27th, 1957, at 22:35 UT (15.35 Pacific Daylight Time), at the Nevada Test Range at 32°N 116°W, a 300 ton-yield atomic device was ...
12
votes
0answers
222 views
Has NASA ever included a ground controller or astronaut becoming insane/irrational/belligerent in a training simulation?
NASA training simulations have included a wide variety of problems thrown at the pilots and ground controllers -- not only the typical technical failures, but also some unusual outside-world stuff ...
11
votes
0answers
188 views
Has Buzz Aldrin’s Line-of-Sight rendezvous method ever been used?
Has Buzz Aldrin’s Line-of-Sight rendezvous method ever been used?
Buzz Aldrin’s 1963 doctoral thesis https://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/12652 describes a line-of-sight (LOS) rendezvous technique ...
11
votes
0answers
233 views
Does the SpaceX spacesuit address any of the criticisms of ACES raised by Columbia Crew Survival Investigation Report?
A brief history of what Shuttle crews wore for ascent and entry, from the Columbia Crew Survival Investigation Report:
The shuttle was originally designed to be operated in a shirtsleeve (bare-hands) ...
10
votes
0answers
163 views
What space capsule is this part from?
One of my relatives has this metal component sitting in their backyard. It was a souvenir that my grandfather got to keep from his days working in the aerospace industry (primarily for Boeing). My ...
10
votes
0answers
145 views
Which kinds of survival equipment does Crew Dragon have, in case of an emergency landing?
Soyuz spacecraft has various survival equipment for different cases of emergency landing.
The cases include water landing, desert landing, snow winter landing (crews have special winter suits). They ...
10
votes
0answers
232 views
What could be strong arguments against Ingenuity following Perseverance at a safe distance when the flight test program has been a success?
This answer to the question "How long could the Mars helicopter Ingenuity keep up with the Perseverance rover if it wanted to?" reasons that indeed it could for years !
But according to the ...
10
votes
0answers
242 views
Were there any launch vehicles with so heavily pronounced Plume Induced Flow Separation (PIFS), other than Saturn V?
This answer describes a very interesting phenomenon of Plume Induced Flow Separation on Saturn V vehicle.
(Apollo-6 S68-29737 photo, courtesy NASA)
This is, basically, when "fire" from ...
10
votes
1answer
223 views
Will Soyuz spacecraft be able to visit the Lunar Gateway?
I mean launch from Earth, dock to the gateway and come back.
9
votes
0answers
443 views
What happens if Ariane V actually fails while launching JWST?
Obviously, I don't expect this. But I was thinking about it, and the importance, uniqueness, and irreplaceability of this payload is almost (?) unprecedented, especially for a transnational project. I ...
9
votes
0answers
186 views
After nine years on Mars, has anything on Curiosity broken yet?
As per Wikipedia's Curiosity (rover), it landed nine years ago today at 6 August 2012, 05:17:57 UTC.
This is yet another testament to NASA spacecraft reliability.
Since landing, has anything actually ...
