Aug 7 2007
From The Space Library
NASA announced that it had developed a new wireless tile scanner and was using it to inspect Space Shuttles before launch, looking for cracks and other imperfections. NASA intended for the new method to replace manual inspection of Space Shuttles. Wireless scanner inspections had begun on Endeavour, scheduled to launch to the ISS on 8 August. Technicians were using six new scanners, designed and built at NASA’s ARC in California, to check for problems in some of the 24,000 tiles covering Endeavour. Instead of using small hand-held scales to measure dents and cracks and to estimate the volume of flaws to a worst-case value, the technicians were able to use the new devices to scan flaws and to archive the data. The scanner’s software measured the archived data to determine accurately the depth and volume of flaws and their locations, allowing engineers to examine three-dimensional images of the flaws. NASA had developed the same technology further, to create a larger, desktop version of the scanner. NASA was using the larger version to study samples of material for the heat shield that was under development for Orion.
NASA, “NASA Develops Wireless Tile Scanner for Space Shuttle Inspection,” news release 07-171, 7 August 2007, http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2007/aug/HQ_07171_Shuttle_Tile_Scanner.html (accessed 14 June 2010).
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