Hello everybody,
let's have a short break, because I have got an interesting post by a nice fellow (
DaveS) in the
NASASpaceFlight.com Forum, who has written as follows ...
Manfred, I have found something that will require you to go back a few steps. It concerns the grid structure on the north walls of the SRB exhaust holes. It isn't launch equipment. It was in fact a temporary support or bracing structure for the walls when MLP-2 was undergoing some rebuild work back in 2004. I have attached a photo from STS-135 which was MLP-2's last launch which clearly shows that the structure isn't there.
together with this image.
Here is a better photo of his stumbling block, what hasn't been surprising me, because I have seen lots of such images already, and I know them very well ...
Source: flickr.com (Jen Scheer)
This refers to my previous rear walls of the
SRB Exhaust Chambers, as created by David Maier, which can be seen here at the adaptation of the
Water Bags.
In connection with this this image of a
SSWS Test (2004) on the
MLP-2 was always on my mind, on which these rear walls are to see.
Source: NASA
At some time I had even scratched these grid structures,
which unfortunately had fallen a victim to my emergency surgery for the adjustment of the SRB shafts , but which I have kept so far.
But since I decided to install the
Water Bags, I had to renounce it for reasons of space and therefore I used the rear walls from the Paper Kit.
Interesting would be the question to David Maier, why he decided for these rear walls ...
As an explanatory answer, I sent
DaveS the above picture of the SSWS test and said that the back walls also looked like this after the conversion of the MLP-2 in the year 2004 and probably also before were not different, but what still turned out as a fallacy.
When viewing the image series of this SSWS test in
NASA Media Archive was clarified to me by the detailed information that 2004 some equipment at the MLP-2 were converted or exchanged, as can be read there ...
This test is being conducted following the replacement of the six main system valves, which had been in place since the beginning of the Shuttle Program and had reached the end of their service life. Also, the hydraulic portion of the valve actuators has been redesigned and simplified to reduce maintenance costs.
especially because the Shuttle missions after the
Columbia Disaster (STS-107, 2003) were interrupted for a year and a half.
And in his following answer,
DaveS has also confirmed that with two pictures for me comprehensibly.
In this image of the
STS-90 (1998) the known structure of the rear wall of the
MLP-2 is to see, that means before the overhaul in 2004.
Source: NASA
This image of the
STS-115 (2006) shows the same structure of the rear wall in closer detail in the rear SRB shaft.
Source: NASASpaceFlight.com Forum (DaveS)
And if one looks at the following image from the overhaul phase, this frame structure was, in my opinion, should be the uncovered substructure of the rear wall, onto which the standard wall cladding was installed again after the overhaul, which was the same on all three MLPs.
Source: NASA
So I guess that the rear walls of the
MLP-2 at the
STS-6 at that time also looked like this and I have to redecorate my rear walls accordingly, but that is no problem, because I still have copies of it.
