Rescue?
After the accident the Columbia Accident Investigation Board instructed NASA to come up with a rescue scenario which could have saved the Columbia astronauts. They gave those instructions to NASA not to blame NASA for what they didn't do, but to prove that the axiom 'there's nothing we can do about it so let's not dwell on it' was flawed.
The starting assumption is NASA has hard firm undeniable evidence by Flight Day 5 that Columbia is doomed and cannot reenter as is. NASA examined both repair and rescue scenarios. It's strongly doubtful anything onboard Columbia could have been used for a makeshift repair, but using shuttle Atlantis as a rescue vehicle is plausible. Again, it must be assumed that there's hard evidence that Columbia's been heavily damaged within the first several days after launch.
The most important task would be a closeup inspection to try to determine how much damage had occurred. Columbia didn't have the robot arm installed so the only way to perform a closeup inspection would be via a spacewalk (EVA). It's important to note that Brown and Anderson only had the minimal emergency spacewalk training for anticipated possible emergency tasks and neither had any spacewalking experience. Furthermore they only had the standard spacesuits - no jet backpacks which would give them more maneuverability and no video cameras to transmit views of what they saw back to Mission Control. There were no digital or video cameras which would work during a spacewalk so the only benefit from an inspection spacewalk would be what the astronauts could describe verbally.
Most important the spacewalk would be outside of Columbia's cargo bay and far from the crew cabin, something which has never been done. No handrails are available in the area or video cameras to permit Mission Control to monitor what was happening. It would not be a trivial task or something to undertake casually and would certainly have many inherent risks.
Repair?
The team examined a repair scenario where Dave and Mike would stuff the hole with whatever materials onboard could offer some insulating properties. Most important would be a bag filled with water. The water would freeze over time. During the reentry as the water boiled away it would carry away the heat, but it's believed that it would not have provided enough margin for Columbia to get down intact to an altitude where the crew could safely bailout.
Rescue Scenario
At the time of the accident Atlantis was in the Vehicle Assembly Building and ready to rollout to its launch pad for a launch in early March. Could the preparations for launch be accelerated before supplies ran out on Columbia for a daring rescue mission? Maybe, just maybe.
The rescue scenario calls for Columbia to power down and conserve its supplies. The limiting factor for how long the crew could live was the fixed supply of Lithium Hydroxide (LiOH) cartridges. The crew would be instructed to exchange the LiOH cartridges less often and that results in the carbon dioxide levels doubling. Columbia's astronauts are literally half suffocating but that will permit the LiOH supply to last long enough until Atlantis is ready to launch.
The rescue scenario assumed a four person all experienced shuttle crew but did not specify which astronauts. A likely crew could have been commander Ken Cockrell (a five flight veteran), pilot Eileen Collins who was scheduled to command Atlantis on its next mission, and spacewalkers Jerry Ross and Steve Smith.
Preparations for Atlantis go into high gear with three shift around-the-clock work, along with intense training for the rescue crew.
After Atlantis launches and rendezvous with Columbia Ross and Smith would make a spacewalk from Atlantis to Columbia carrying spare spacesuits and Lithium Hydroxide canisters.
Over a series of four spacewalks the Columbia crew transfers over to Atlantis (from the top shuttle to the bottom shuttle in this computer-generated graphic).
While nothing in this scenario is impossible it would require many techniques which had never been done together, an incredibly abbreviated training cycle for the rescue crew, and violating many shuttle safety rules. It would also put Atlantis at potentially the same risk for damage as Columbia.
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