[Utah-astronomy] Shuttle

I listened to some of NPR's "Science Friday" yesterday afternoon. One of the topics was the Space Shuttle and the foam insulation. Sorry, but I don't recall who the interviewee was - someone from NASA. One caller asked the same thing that Guy suggested - well, sort of. The caller asked if a net of some kind could be placed over the external tank, but he didn't mention fishnet stockings. Anyway, the interviewee said that NASA had actually considered a similar scenario, but he didn't say why it was ruled out. Maybe designers got nervous about all those new up-skirt cameras that were recently installed on the shuttle? Kim