[ale] OT: Space Shuttle Columbia

[James P. Kinney III]

Because there isn't a camera on the belly of the shuttle orbiter. The
shuttle flies "belly to the stars" so the antennae have a better gain
towards the ground for communication. Even if it flew the other way
around, no ground based optic system could resolve the tiles.

Besides, the insulation piece looked like it hit the top of the wing,
not the underside, or even the leading edge, where the tiles are.

There are plenty of other hazards up in space. The one that come to mind
first are micrometeorites. A grain of sand traveling at 20k mph hitting
the tile will cause a problem. The shuttle has been struck before. 

Scenario:

A micrometeorite, or possibly a small swarm, strikes the underside of
the orbiter. It damages the tiles just forward of the wheel well cover.
This disrupts the air flow during reentry and causes an abnormally high
pressure increase effectively ripping the cover off. This allows the
inrush of super heated air from below the wing into wheel well
compartment. This rapid air blast and heat destroys the sensors in the
area. As the craft descends into thicker atmosphere, the air flow causes
excess drag causing the computer systems to work harder. Eventually,
since the system is now flying with an open bay, something never
designed for, structural damage occurs and the entire wing, followed by
the remaining craft disintegrates.

On Tue, 2003-02-04 at 19:43, Jeff Hubbs wrote:
> > This is a key statement.  They can't just perform a spacewalk under the 
> > shuttle.  They couldn't check the titles, and as such everything turned 
> > in to a [tragic] afterthought.
> 
> I have yet to see an explanation as to why not.
> 
> - Jeff
> 
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James P. Kinney III          \Changing the mobile computing world/
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GPG ID: 829C6CA7 James P. Kinney III (M.S. Physics) <jkinney at localnetsolutions.com>
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