Observation on TPS damage on Orbiter
and look at budge's image files:
Posted on 07/07/2003 1:10:51 PM PDT by DoughtyOne
Science - AP
Shuttle Foam Test Yields Hole in Wing
59 minutes ago
By MARCIA DUNN, AP Aerospace Writer
SAN ANTONIO - The team investigating the Columbia disaster fired a chunk of foam insulation at shuttle wing parts Monday and blew open a gaping 2-foot hole, offering dramatic evidence to support the theory of what doomed the spaceship.
The crowd of about 100 gasped and cried, "Wow!" when the foam hit.
The foam struck roughly the same spot where insulation that broke off Columbia's big external fuel tank during launch smashed into the shuttle's wing. Investigators believe the damage led to the ship's destruction during re-entry over Texas in February, killing all seven astronauts.
It was the seventh and final foam-impact test by the Columbia Accident Investigation Board, and it yielded by far the most severe damage.
The 1.67-pound piece of fuel tank foam insulation shot out of a 35-foot nitrogen-pressurized gun and slammed into a carbon-reinforced panel removed from shuttle Atlantis.
The countdown boomed through loudspeakers, and the crack of the foam coming out at more than 500 mph reverberated in the field where the test was conducted.
Twelve high-speed cameras — six inside the wing mock-up and six outside — captured the event. Hundreds of sensors registered movements, stresses and other conditions.
NASA (news - web sites) will continue gathering more information about the poorly understood pieces that line the vulnerable leading edges of shuttle wings, board member Scott Hubbard said.
One month ago, another carbon shuttle wing panel — smaller and farther inboard — was cracked by the impact, in addition to an adjoining seal. This time, the entire 11 1/2-inch width of the foam chunk — rather than just a corner during previous tests — hit the wing, putting maximum stress on the suspect area.
I don't understand how this test and results would have not had a MAJOR aerodynamic effect on the orbiter on accent. You think the orbiter would have flown 17K MPH with a 16" hole in its wing without blowing apart before reaching space? BS!
It does, but this "gun" has a square or at least rectangular bore. That is one of it's changeable barrels has a none circular bore. It is a smooth bore, so the "projectile" need not rotate. Plus it uses a sabot and a stripper to "hold" the sabot. The sabot provides the seal to the barrel as the nitrogen gas pushes it and the payload down the barrel, but it then stripped off from the payload, so that only the payload hits the "target".
It does, but this "gun" has a square or at least rectangular bore. That is one of it's changeable barrels has a none circular bore. It is a smooth bore, so the "projectile" need not rotate. Plus it uses a sabot and a stripper to "hold" the sabot. The sabot provides the seal to the barrel as the nitrogen gas pushes it and the payload down the barrel, but it then stripped off from the payload, so that only the payload hits the "target".
Thiokol management was another matter.
You think the orbiter would have flown 17K MPH with a 16" hole in its wing without blowing apart before reaching space? BS!
Correct. There's no telling how many different combinations of strike location and attitude of the impacting foam object there might be. Each might result in a different degree of damage. Perhaps that's one reason that the problem has taken so long to manifest.
HOLY SHIITE!
That quote was from your original post on 2/4/03.
My question: will the freon be put back into the foam before the next mission?
The chicken gun (also known as the chicken cannon, turkey gun, or rooster booster) has been around since 1972.
Such bird guns have been around longer than that. In 1973 or '74 when I was in the Air Force. I was first told a related story about the use of one at, IIRC, Lockheed with the actual event taking place quite a few years earlier. That story, by an engineer who had seen the high speed films, was from the days when they used live, but sedated, chickens. The story went that the chicken in question woke up before being fired, and could be seen "putting on the brakes", with wings out and cupped forward, in an apparent attempt to stop before hitting the windscreen. Even the guy who told me the story thought that the bird's wings and body were probably just responding to mechanical forces, there being too little time for it to actually react to what was going on.
I haven't seen that one. Do you have a link?
Observation on TPS damage on Orbiter
and look at budge's image files:
Thanks, snopercod, that really was/is an epic thread.
I think FReepers had the disaster nailed from the first, and the research that went into that thread is incredible.
If this is the bottom, and I've lost perspective, then the strike doesn't mean as much to me because there are no tiles.
If you are refering to this most recent test video/pics of the hit, there are no tiles on the leading edge of the wing.
NASA was testing a hit on this portion of the wing which is Reinforced Carbon Carbon. The RCC is so impervious to heat that tiles would do nothing to protect it, only add un-needed weight.
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