

Mars Rover Heads Uphill After Solving 'Doughnut' Riddle - suprgeek
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/m/news/news.php?release=2014-051

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thangalin
Article detailing the actions of engineers Jack Beverlin and Bill McClure:

[http://www.508pir.org/pdf_files/mcclure_nasa.pdf](http://www.508pir.org/pdf_files/mcclure_nasa.pdf)

~~~
jccooper
And a non-PDF resource:

[http://www.universetoday.com/100177/the-mars-spacecraft-
that...](http://www.universetoday.com/100177/the-mars-spacecraft-that-was-
almost-destroyed/)

You know, that's the first story I've heard of the Atlas "balloon tank" being
a problem. The tank skin was less than 0.5mm thick, and the whole thing was
held up by internal pressure. 5 PSI minimum, all the time. They were quite
strong if you didn't screw up--but something will always screw up eventually,
I guess. Apparently at least one other launch vehicle was lost to under-
pressurization, an Atlas-Agena, but it was during testing and only had a dummy
payload.

New Atlas V (which isn't much related to the old Atlas) is self supporting, so
this isn't a problem there. But the Centaur upper stage, which is widely used
for planetary work and GEO insertion, is still a balloon tank, though I don't
know of any mishaps with it.

The old Atlas was a weird bird in other ways, too. It had "1 and one half"
stages, because they didn't know if you could start a rocket engine in space.
It had two vernier engines that ran the whole time. And they invented WD-40 so
they could slather the whole thing in anti-corrosive, even though it was
stainless steel, because the skin was too thin to allow any hint of corrosion.

Closing the valves on a fueled and deflating Atlas indeed sounds like
conspicuous bravery to me. The era of "steely-eyed missile men" indeed.

~~~
programd
A nuclear warhead tipped Titan II ballistic missle blew up in its silo in 1980
after a maintenance crewman dropped a wrench and punctured the tank causing
fuel to leak out.

The tank depressurised and the missile came close to collapsing because the
tank could not support its weight. Eventually the fuel ignited and the whole
stack went up. Fortunately the warhead didn't go off. The really chilling bit
is that it easily could have.

The story is told in the book "Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the
Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety" by Eric Schlosser. This should
be required reading for all engineers, a textbook on how complex systems can
go wrong.

If the book does not scare the shit out of you regarding the apalling
standards of nuclear warhead engineering then you may not have a pulse.

------
carljoseph
Does this mean "scientist" Rhawn Joseph will drop his frivolous petition
demanding NASA to investigate this as a biological organism [1,2]?

[1] [http://www.universetoday.com/108733/some-ideas-on-where-
the-...](http://www.universetoday.com/108733/some-ideas-on-where-the-jelly-
donut-rock-on-mars-came-from-and-no-its-not-a-mushroom/)

[2] [http://www.ibtimes.com/alien-life-lawsuit-rhawn-joseph-
claim...](http://www.ibtimes.com/alien-life-lawsuit-rhawn-joseph-claims-nasa-
involved-cover-over-mars-jelly-doughnut-rock-1550692)

