Aerodynamics May Explain Space Shuttle Breakup: possible causes, consequences of Columbia disaster

TIME.com ^ | February 1, 2003 | Jeffrey Kluger

[Paleo Conservative]

Reentry is a very difficult process, but the Russians mastered it in 1961 and we did the same a few years later.

Where do the news networks find such nitwits. The US successfully tested a Mercury capsule in 1961 with a chimpanzee aboard prior to Gagarin's flight.

[unspun]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/834005/posts?page=55#55

[pitinkie]

NO

[Erasmus]

Oh!

At first I thought you were talking about Fidel.

Then I thought you were talking about your Feline.

Never mind.

[Xenalyte]

Just out of curiosity, does Kluger have any more credentials than "TIME Science Correspondent"?

[supercat]

I said the new shuttle was named Enterprise, but it was actually named the Endeavor, as pointed out by Radio Astronomer and Desdemona. I guess Enterprise was probably the first flight test vehicle as I now reconsider it.

So was the original plan to build five vehicles of which only four would be spaceworthy?

[Movemout]

Oh!

At first I thought you were talking about Fidel.

Then I thought you were talking about your Feline.

Never mind.

I appreciate your successful attempt at humor on a rough day. I have nerve damage in my left arm and my brain might be worth preserving upon my death for its anomolous properties needing to be studied. Cats and Castro, what a hoot!

[HighWheeler]

"...which means astronauts at the controls can't compensate for a loss of attitude by using the engines, they can only do so using the flaps. And that's extremely hard."

I looked up this guy's credentials, he is not an engineer nor a pilot. He is a keyboard jockey.

As a glider pilot, I can tell you that using flaps is the fastest way to restore control, engines are too slow to react and only point thrust in one direction. This guy need to go back to writing about gardening.

here is his bio

[Fred Hayek]

"Also don't forget that there is a constant stream of telemetry downlinked to mission control at JSC."

As long as any re-entry vehicle is surrounded by hot plasma during re-entry, no real time data can get through.

[The Iguana]

Well, there is the X-33/Venture Star being developed by Lockheed Martin:

Lockheed Plans Redesign of Venture Star
By Jonathan Lipman

Special to space.com
posted: 06:51 am ET
30 September 1999

WASHINGTON (States News Service) – Lockheed-Martin will use an external payload bay on its Venture Star vehicle instead of an internal one like its prototype the X-33, said Lockheed Vice President Jerry Rising at a congressional hearing.

Lockheed learned from the X-33 that the VentureStar will be more efficient if it carries its payload bay in an external canister, Rising said, rather than inside the vehicle like the X-33. The new configuration is already undergoing wind-tunnel testing, he added, and will be unveiled within a couple of weeks.

By removing the space for a payload bay inside the craft, Lockheed can package the light-weight fuel tanks and other internal systems more efficiently, said Lockheed Martin executive Anthony Jacob, giving the VentureStar greater lift capability.

The canister, which will look like a fat pencil riding on top of the wedge-shaped vehicle, will be 53 feet long and 15 feet in diameter, and will have the same payload space as the previous design, somewhat less than the space shuttle.

"It makes it safer, really" for any possible crew, Rising said. The canister would ride on the lee side during re-entry, so that the entire ship would act as a heat-shield in the event of a problem.

"You have to accept what I call ‘morphing’ of the operational design to take advantage of what you learned from the [X-33]," Payton said. For NASA’s proposed Crew Return Vehicle, which the VentureStar would theoretically lift to orbit with the ISS crew, "it’s an easier design as far as simple, mechanical integration goes," Payton said.

The canister would also allow more flexibility for payloads, since it could be changed for larger or odd-shaped payloads, Rising said.

[Movemout]

"So was the original plan to build five vehicles of which only four would be spaceworthy? "

Not at all. Werner Von Braun was still alive when the shuttle was on the drawing board. He viewed shuttle as an interim step to an aggressive space program. The anemic funding to NASA by LBJ, Nixon, and Carter resulted in the program that we now discuss. There was a test article or several, one of which was flight tested. The shuttle fleet has always been limited in terms of flight rate by processing and available launch facilities. There may be a day when launches will not be constrained by either but I think I am getting to be too old to see the final outcome, much to my great chagrin. Max Faget, a marvelous madman if there ever was one, had some great ideas about how to proceed with establishing a more permanent presence in space. He was ignored and put out to pasture as most old people are in the course of progress.

[Movemout]

"As long as any re-entry vehicle is surrounded by hot plasma during re-entry, no real time data can get through. "

You must be ingesting copious amounts of genetically altered foodstuffs and ensconced in tin foil. Your statement is bald of truth as it applies to the return of a shuttle for landing.

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

Not only do we need to get back there post haste, we need to build a couple more shuttles...

The cause in which they died will continue. Mankind is led into the darkness beyond our world by the inspiration of discovery and the longing to understand. Our journey into space will go on.

In the skies today we saw destruction and tragedy. Yet farther than we can see there is comfort and hope. In the words of the prophet Isaiah, "Lift your eyes and look to the heavens. Who created all these? He who brings out the starry hosts one by one and calls them each by name. Because of His great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing." - President George W. Bush, Remarks by the President on the Loss of Space Shuttle Columbia

[VetoBill]

I remember once reading a book that dealt with a fictional destruction of a soviet shuttle.

A character in the book poured an amount of acid onto the ceramic tiles of a couple soviet shuttles. This supposedly roughened the tiles, allowing aerodynamic forces to compromise the shielding.

That being said I do not believe this was a terrorist attack. I do appreciate alternative theories on what could have happened, I just do not immediately associate them with terrorist activity. I believe most things that could have happen, most likely fall into the "stupid $hit that gets people killed but didn't mean it" category

[CharacterCounts]

Wasn't Mercury suborbital?

[Paleo Conservative]

Wasn't Mercury suborbital?

Yes that particular Mercury flight was suborbital, but it did test the reentry system and heat shields. We were in no way behind the Soviet Union in developing our space technology in 1961. It's just that the Soviets were willing to take greater risks with their personnel. The statement I quote said that our reentry systems were not perfected until several years later which is not true. Both Allan Sheppard and Gus Grissom successfully reentered the atmosphere in 1961, and the four manned orbital Mercury flights also successfully reentered the atmosphere.

[Fred Hayek]

First a little education about any re-entry:

Due to heating during re-entry into the atmosphere, any re-entry vehicle is surrounded by plasma, which, oversimplified, is superheated gas to the point where it is ionized. The plasma, which is electrically conductive, prevents any RF traffic between the RV and the ground. No voice communication, no telemetry. When the velocity of the RV is reduced to the point where friction heating no longer produces plasma, RF communication can be re-established. This has been noted since the Mercury program. Not tinfoil, simply physics. Now if the shuttle was past the re-entry regime where there is plasma just before the failure events, then I stand corrected. If not, you are as technically illiterate as the rest of the media loons including Dan Blather.

[Movemout]

"Wasn't Mercury suborbital? "

Surely you jest. Ask John Glenn if his orbit around the Earth was real.

[CharacterCounts]

Actually, I now remember it. One of the functions of the flight was to test the heat shields for the Gemini flights.

[CharacterCounts]

I was referring to the 1961 Mercury flights. That was the topic of discussion.