From: Henry Spencer <henry@zoo.toronto.edu>
Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle,sci.space.policy,sci.space.tech
Subject: Re: OMV (was Re: External Tank space stations)
Date: Tue, 30 Apr 1996 23:16:07 GMT

In article <4lqr06$kuu@crl.crl.com> tmcd@crl.com (Timothy A. McDaniel) writes:
>OK, I'll bite ... why are the Shuttle astronaut MMUs useless, as Henry
>Spenser tells us?

Because there is no use for them.  Simple as that. :-)

You don't use MMUs for work around the shuttle or a space station.  It's
simpler and safer to just use tethers and handholds for that.

The original motive for the MMU was the idea that you'd need to stabilize
a satellite before the shuttle orbiter moved in close to retrieve it or
repair it.  Turns out that the orbiter and its arm can maneuver much more
delicately than originally thought, so all the added complications and 
risks of MMU operations can be bypassed.

The MMUs are basically in dead storage, and nobody expects them to be
used again.
-- 
Americans proved to be more bureaucratic           |       Henry Spencer
than I ever thought.  --Valery Ryumin, RKK Energia |   henry@zoo.toronto.edu