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Author
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Topic: How NASA cut Gemini heat shield core samples
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space1
Member Posts: 853
From: Danville, Ohio
Registered: Dec 2002
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posted 12-14-2018 12:29 PM
   
I recently found documentation of the method NASA used to cut Gemini heat shield core samples. I'm a bit surprised that it was such a manual method. Also none of the workers are wearing any kind of protective gear. The sampling was done at Kennedy Space Center during postflight inspection of the recovered spacecraft. 
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thisismills
Member Posts: 263
From: Michigan
Registered: Mar 2012
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posted 12-14-2018 01:51 PM
Really appreciate you for sharing this information. Was this part of a larger spacecraft inspection document or a procedure documented on its own? If known, would you be able to share the document number here or a hi-res scan of the page. I would very much like to include it as part of my Gemini Heatshield Core summary. Thanks! |
SpaceAholic
Member Posts: 4437
From: Sierra Vista, Arizona
Registered: Nov 1999
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posted 12-14-2018 03:41 PM
Apparently NASA invited a multi-armed Hindu diety to cut the cores... |
space1
Member Posts: 853
From: Danville, Ohio
Registered: Dec 2002
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posted 12-15-2018 03:00 PM
This was the only page I copied from a larger document about postflight inspection procedures (remove this, ship it there, etc.).I should also note that this was done with the heat shield removed from the spacecraft. Regarding the quadro-armed deity, I purposely did not include the recognizable faces of the multiple technicians to avoid privacy concerns. (Thisismills, email sent to your address on file.) |
Jim Behling
Member Posts: 1463
From: Cape Canaveral, FL
Registered: Mar 2010
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posted 12-17-2018 11:33 AM
quote:
Originally posted by space1:
Also none of the workers are wearing any kind of protective gear.
Protection from what? |
GACspaceguy
Member Posts: 2474
From: Guyton, GA
Registered: Jan 2006
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posted 12-17-2018 01:47 PM
In today's industrial safety culture. First the one person is wearing a ring and watch while operating a rotary type of equipment, there is no protective gloves and open sleeves, as well as possible airborne contamination is not being vacuumed into a waste contamination device. So many violations here.  |
space1
Member Posts: 853
From: Danville, Ohio
Registered: Dec 2002
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posted 12-17-2018 02:36 PM
Regarding protective gear, I was thinking mostly of respiratory risks. Creating a fine dust which is possibly hazardous would justify some precautions. |
Jim Behling
Member Posts: 1463
From: Cape Canaveral, FL
Registered: Mar 2010
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posted 12-18-2018 09:41 AM
quote:
Originally posted by GACspaceguy:
...there is no protective gloves and open sleeves, as well as possible airborne contamination is not being vacuumed into a waste contamination device.
Why gloves or sleeves? That is not required nor is vacuuming. Especially since the cutting is low RPM. That is why two people were required to hold the drill. |
GACspaceguy
Member Posts: 2474
From: Guyton, GA
Registered: Jan 2006
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posted 12-18-2018 10:35 AM
Precautionary PPE based on an unknown properties post reentry. I would say our EHS would require that protection based on the unknowns at the time. Purely speculative based on 40 years of aircraft repair/modification history. |
oly
Member Posts: 905
From: Perth, Western Australia
Registered: Apr 2015
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posted 12-18-2018 07:27 PM
There has been in excess of 50 years of development in workplace safety practices between when this photo was captured and now.We have all seen images of construction workers building steel framed sky scrapers in New York, riding loads of steelwork as it is lifted by crane, walking along beams without safety harnesses and smoking on the worksite. Times have changed. The instructions posted above note that tap water is to be used as a lubricant during the heat shield cutting process. This liquid would mitigate much of the dust particulates produced during cutting, however the use of a geared, high torque electric drill and tap water would probably fail modern risk assessment reviews. I suspect that the above photo may have been staged for the camera, because the people in the photo appear to be too nicely dressed to undertake the cutting of glass fiber structural materials. they appear too clean to have been handling charred phenolic materials, It is a messy job. |
Jim Behling
Member Posts: 1463
From: Cape Canaveral, FL
Registered: Mar 2010
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posted 12-19-2018 08:36 AM
quote:
Originally posted by GACspaceguy:
Precautionary PPE based on an unknown properties post reentry.
They were known. Post mission for Gemini wasn't the first time they handled and dissected the material after it was charred. The material was charred in labs, hypersonic wind tunnels, sounding rockets, RVs etc and analyzed afterwards long before used on Gemini. |
space1
Member Posts: 853
From: Danville, Ohio
Registered: Dec 2002
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posted 12-19-2018 09:29 AM
quote:
Originally posted by oly:
I suspect that the above photo may have been staged for the camera...
This was one of several photos documenting cutting of samples. One photo shows a movie camera recording the activity. Throughout the disassembly and inspection of the spacecraft everyone is dressed either in casual office clothes, or some are in white shirt and tie (managers?). No sign of staging for the cameras other than for documentation. |
Jonnyed
Member Posts: 396
From: Dumfries, VA, USA
Registered: Aug 2014
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posted 12-19-2018 03:39 PM
PPE trousers by Brooks Brothers! Times have changed/evolved, haven't they?Looks like someone has lined through the "use tap water..." instruction in the manual and initialed the line-through, so perhaps tap-water was never used during the drilling operation? Inhalation risks and eye-protection considerations seem most likely here (I am informed by several years of naval shipyard work, but admittedly I'm still typing "...from my armchair.") |
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