Live Thread: NASA PRESS CONFERENCE

http://www.freerepublic.com ^ | February 3, 2002

[mhking]

I think that a reasonable assumption could be that the rise in temp, coupled with the rise in tire pressure on the left tire, could have caused the tire to explode....

I know the tires are pressurized - what with?

[cyncooper]

Thanks for the ping--I'm listening...

I never believed the toxic business, but thought it was a way to tamp down on the number of those who would handle debris and impede the investigation.

[Bikers4Bush]

HQ contingency action team has been assembled.......currently close cooperation with federal, state and local officals , ongoing.

[Frank_Discussion]

Nitrogen, I think.

[Howlin]

He's giving the logistics of the operation.

Investigation focusing on the tiles.

[Quilla]

Nitrogen was mentioned Saturday.

[Howlin]

I was so proud of the every day people who went out and just stood by those pieces of the shuttle.

[txradioguy]

"I know the tires are pressurized - what with?"


From what I've read they are preassurized with air just like on other aircraft. And I believe I heard in one of the pressers yesterday that the tire didn't explode. But then they do keep correcting themselves from one briefing to another.

[justshe]

I never believed the toxic business, but thought it was a way to tamp down on the number of those who would handle debris and impede the investigation

Or those who attempt to snatch a souvenir.

[Dog]

Space Shuttle Tires...and specs.

[mhking]

NASA Briefing live stream via MSNBC: http://www.msnbc.com/m/lv/
It's probably from NASA-TV; their servers are overloaded. I'll see if I can find a less slammed server.

[NautiNurse]

I was really touched yesterday to see and hear that fellow astronauts are part of the recovery team.

[Howlin]

They are continuing to add people from NASA on scene to augment state and federal people.

They are focusing on recovering human remains first.

Man, they have got this organized!

[HairOfTheDog]

Why does the media think we need constant moving picture-in-picture of "other action" during these briefings? Is it we who get bored too easily or them?

[Frank_Discussion]

The hydrazine used in the OMS engines is rather toxic, and while most of it would burn off in a case like this, it is pretty nasty stuff. The fuzzy-looking balls that some people have found certainly look like propellant tanks, and could have residual stuff - I wouldn't advise anyone to touch them myself.

[Bikers4Bush]

100 NASA people on site, to be added to by as many as 60 more.

Collecting debris and human remains.

[Howlin]

Second command post at Carswell to inspect things found near Fort Worth.

[txradioguy]

Ok I stand corrected. Thanks for the info.

[Howlin]

I do NOT know. It's too busy! I cannot even LOOK at CNN Headline News! Too much info....and I love info!

[mikegi]

If enough heat got past the tiles to raise the internal structure 60 degrees in five minutes, the tiles aren't doing their job. Internal heat changes are normally very slight on the structure of the shuttles themselves.

But they said that the other side registered a 15 degree increase. So, an increase in temp was expected. If a 15 deg increase was expected, then a 60 deg rise would certainly not cause problems. In addition, apparently no other sensors reported a rise in temp. Why not?

I'm well aware of data acquisition, having written software to do it for monitoring industrial systems. You typically get a bunch of samples and average them over a given time period in order to generate a result (tossing outliers, etc.). Do you know what the sampling rate was on the shuttle's temp sensors?