From: jrfrank@ibm-pc.borg.retro.com   
      
   henry@spsystems.net (Henry Spencer) wrote in   
   news:I0qwID.48z@spsystems.net:   
      
   > In article ,   
   > Keith F. Lynch  wrote:   
   >>> ...focused on the tiles, not the RCC leading edge, and no   
   >>> plausible imaging -- from the ground or from elsewhere in space --   
   >>> would have been at all likely to notice a small dark hole in a black   
   >>> surface.)   
   >>   
   >>How difficult would it be to mount lots of lights inside the wings,   
   >>and paint the inside white, so that any hole in the wing can easily   
   >>be detected from a great distance?   
   >   
   > A lot of work if you want to get them into every nook and cranny, plus   
   > the question of whether structural damage might also happen to cut the   
   > wiring. And detection from a great distance requires a lot of light...   
   >   
   > Much better, on the whole, to improve close-up inspection technology   
   > by using things like lidar imaging.   
      
   Yup. The boom system the Canadians are building (OBSS) will accommodate two   
   lidars: Sandia's LDRI and the Neptec LCS.   
      
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   JRF   
      
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