Posted on 02/13/2003 4:00:37 PM PST by analyst2
All the garbage will eventually come out. Too many people know too many things.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/835531/posts?page=1603#1603
I agree with the analysis that the wing glove folded and the wheel well became the leading edge, and hat perhaps this was caused by two hits of ET debris.
(The two hits being approximately where the arrows are 
)
But what troubles me, (and my field is Robotics) is this doesn't fit the sensor data. I think it troubles NASA too.
Also I didn't see an explaination why the Wing glove would collapse *ahead* of the debris hit.
True? Rumors? Time will tell.
I believe they were responding to radiant heating of the gear. There fore, they would not show large increases if the skin over the gear was failing. The penetration of plasma was not that deep. It looses energy fast when it no longer is in contact with the source heat. Since there is no air to speak of, the hollow wing can only get the heat from a radiant source or the aluminum can absorb it and it can travel that way. The sensors that sense these temps were off line.
If a sniper bullet hit the wing and shreaded a tile, what kind of "debris" would it make?
If a sniper bullet bounced back and hit the booster it could also generate a large amount of foam. Something like that could easily be checked since they recover the boosters.
LOL!
We know where the sensors were
And we know that the whole thing was basically hollow (even the wheel well appears to be struts as opposed a walled well
Personally I do not believe the problem began in the glove. I believe it began on the leading edge of the gear door. The glove was only involved just prior to breakup.(assuming it was)
The picture is terrible and I get little from it other that the shuttle was in trouble.
They are clearly looking for alternatives to a missing tile
Hot Plasma May Have Invaded Shuttle -Investigators ..
By Deborah Zabarenko
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The extreme heat observed on the shuttle Columbia's left side during its fatal re-entry could have been caused by hot plasma penetrating the craft's wheel well, independent investigators said on Thursday.
 Reuters Photo Plasma is the super-heated gas that surrounded the shuttle as it streaked toward a landing at Kennedy Space Center (news - web sites) on Feb. 1. Plasma typically envelops a fast-descending space shuttle, but this time, preliminary analysis indicates it may have gotten inside the spacecraft's protective surface.
"Preliminary analysis by a NASA (news - web sites) working group this week indicates that the temperature indications seen in Columbia's left wheel well during entry would require the presence of plasma," the Columbia Accident Investigation Board said in a statement forwarded by NASA.
However, the board said the heat was so excessive that it could not have been caused by the absence of just one missing tile in the last minutes of flight.
This is significant since questions have centered on the possibility that some of Columbia's heat-shielding tiles were knocked off by a piece of foam insulation that fell off the shuttle's external fuel tank about 80 seconds after launch, apparently striking the left wing.
The board said investigators were looking at other ways the shuttle's skin might have been breached to let plasma into the wheel well area or elsewhere in the wing.
They also discounted fears that a problem with the landing gear on the left side of the spacecraft might have caused the shuttle to disintegrate over Texas, as a NASA engineer suggested in an e-mail two days before the shuttle's demise.
PROBLEMS ON COLUMBIA'S LEFT SIDE
"Other flight data including gear position indicators and drag information does not support the scenario of an early deployment of the left gear," the board said.
The board's statement was distributed by NASA, which has already come under criticism for failing to keep its distance from the independent inquiry that was appointed just hours after Columbia broke apart.
After a bruising four-hour congressional hearing on Wednesday with just one witness -- NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe -- the space agency amended the investigative board's charter to address concerns about its independence.
The search for debris from Columbia continued in Texas, where a preliminary analysis of low-frequency sound wave recordings indicated the shuttle exploded between the cities of Amarilla and Lubbock, about 330 miles west of Dallas.
The data from sensitive devices that record infrasound, or low-frequency sound waves inaudible by humans, was sent to NASA, said Eugene Herrin, a geophysicist at Southern Methodist University in Dallas.
Herrin said data indicates a single explosion over Texas. A monitoring station in New Mexico showed the spacecraft as being intact as it passed over that state, he said.
Scientists operate a worldwide system of infrasound detectors that record items such as sonic booms. The devices look for any disturbance in the atmosphere such as a nuclear blast, meteor flights or even hurricanes.
Herrin said the infrasound likely recorded the moment when the shuttle blew apart, but the findings were preliminary.
The search on the ground shifted to Anderson County, west of Nacogdoches, where most of the reported shuttle debris fell. Officials said they have likely found more parts from the shuttle's wings and are checking serial numbers on recovered parts to see if they came from the left wing.
|
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.