How does a radiator cost $390 million dollars? Is this just gov't
purchasing policy (i.e. $5,000 Pentagon toilet seats) run amok or is
there so much specialized engineering, R & D, overhead etc in this
price?

Or does this incorporate the cost of the shuttle launch?

Could something like this radiator be made by a small machine shop
for a few million?

"The main goal of this fourth flight of the year is to attach a $390
million truss segment to one already bolted to the ISS. Known as S-
One (S1), the 45-foot-long (13.7-meter) truss holds three radiators
and much of the plumbing that will be required to keep the entire
complex cool once additional modules and power-generating solar
arrays are added in the future."

http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/sts112_preview_020930.html

On Tuesday, October 1, 2002, at 05:09 AM, victoriatangoman wrote:

> How does a radiator cost $390 million dollars? Is this just gov't
> purchasing policy (i.e. $5,000 Pentagon toilet seats) run amok or is
> there so much specialized engineering, R & D, overhead etc in this
> price?
>
It's a one-of-a-kind item. There are three radiators, a truss, the
plumbing, electrical and mechanical items. It has to be tested in a
vibration chamber to insure it survives launch. It must be tested in a
vacum chamber and a thermal chamber. It must be transported from test
facility to test facility and then to the launch pad. Everything must be
made as light as possible (but not too light) to reduce launch problems,
which requires a lot of engineering analysis and test. It must fold up
to fit in the shuttle cargo bay. The materials (especially electronics)
may not contain small air pockets that will explode when the external
atmospheric pressure goes to 0. The materials must survive many extreme
thermal cycles. Servicing is by EVA astronauts, very expensive, and must
be avoided. And a lot of other things I haven't thought of.

Note that a production 747 costs about $200 million. Many hundreds of
747s have been made, they live in a more benign environment, and they
which can be serviced on the ground by people in shirt sleeves

> Or does this incorporate the cost of the shuttle launch?

Probably not.

>
> Could something like this radiator be made by a small machine shop
> for a few million?

Perhaps, if you get the design for free (great) and don't do any testing
(bad idea).

>
> "The main goal of this fourth flight of the year is to attach a $390
> million truss segment to one already bolted to the ISS. Known as S-
> One (S1), the 45-foot-long (13.7-meter) truss holds three radiators
> and much of the plumbing that will be required to keep the entire
> complex cool once additional modules and power-generating solar
> arrays are added in the future."
>
> http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/sts112_preview_020930.html
>

The dinosaurs were destroyed by an asteroid because they weren't
space-faring. It's almost as if Gaia then thought "Well, dinosaurs
worked pretty well, but space-faring is necessary. Maybe I'll should
try mammals this time." Humanity is now developing systems to detect and
deflect asteroids, and could build orbital space colonies to spread
beyond Earth to insure life would survive a planetary catastrophe.

Al Globus
CSC at NASA Ames Research Center
http://www.nas.nasa.gov/~globus/home.html