RE: [MLUG - DISCUSSION] shuttle theories

[Jonathan King <EMAIL:PROTECTED>]

On Wed, 5 Feb 2003, Heivilin, Jim wrote:

> Very interesting information, thanks.  However, ... 
> 
> > NASA WAS TOLD IN 1990 ABOUT VULNERABLE TILES
> <snip>
> > would pose no safety hazard to the orbiter. The insulation is 
> > applied as a shaving cream-like foam, but turns hard as a brick. > 
> > 
> This illustrates one of the things about journalist/journalism that most
> angers me.  While I know from other (more reliable) sources that the
> insulating foam was exceptionally light, and thus logically couldn't
> cause sufficient damage, this analogy may be dangerous.  I can easily
> see many people assuming that since it is as hard as a brick it also
> *weights* as much as a brick.  

Yeah, this kind of thing bugs me, too.  It's hard to get the details 
right, of course, but this is the Times...

That said, it now appears possible that the foam insulation had absorbed a
lot of water, since Columbia was out on the launchpad for over a month
before they finally launched.  Now, the foam isn't a kitchen sponge,
either, but it *is* foam, and could have gotten considerably heavier than
NASA was calculating when they decided the debris impact wouldn't matter.

The shuttle is seriously kind of like a Rube Goldberg device in many ways;  
the shuttle is strapped onto a tremendous fuel tank because it isn't big
enough to carry all of its fuel internally but is too big to "stage" onto
a conventional rocket a la Apollo.  The fuel tank gets super cold because
it is filled with liquid fuel, so it has to be insulated to prevent
freezing up of other components and/or other build-up of ice on the tank
that could get flung onto the shuttle's very fragile tiles.  Now pieces of
the insulation itself falls off from time to time, so it has to be a 
super-light foam so it does no damage (and insulates more efficiently)...

And I haven't even gotten to the solid fuel rockets that needed O-rings
because the pieces were too big to ship by railcar if they were in one 
piece, or any of the other nutty details about the shuttle.

jking


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