Space Shuttle Disaster

IF it was sabotage by computer... why wait until re-entry? All seemed to be normal, until the last few minutes of flight. Wouldn't it be much more stunning to have it happen in space?

It's during reentry that even a minor bug delaying the software that keeps the plane oriented would quickly lead to breakup -- and no human could fly the plane or otherwise override. In space there is no such action that a bug could perform that would quickly destroy the craft. That said, I'd say the sabotage software theory is unlikely.

Since the likely culprit was the insulation that came off and hit the wing and tiles, how could the insulation just have come off on launch?

I don't know the answer to that. But no matter the technical explanation the bottom line is human error. Faulty design, inadequate maintenance or a reaction to previously unidentified environmental problems such as cold or moisture may have been factors. Somebody put something together that was not supposed to fall apart an hit something that was not supposed to be hit by it. IE: The left wing.

No matter the cause of the insulation coming off the botom line is that debris hit the left wing and hit it hard. If all I had to debug this problem is the following video I might not look a heck of a lot further. See for yourself:

Slow Motion Video

I agree with you that this software terrorism idea is very unlikely, especially because the shuttle wasn't, of course, running on the internet.

Please see this article -

http://www.washingtontechnology.com/news/1_1/emergingtech/19926-1.html

I think the foam hitting the left wing at takeoff is the most likely cause of the disaster, but computer sabotage cannot be ruled out yet.

Isn't there something called a pulse bomb?

A terrorist hacker?

Is that Former Prime Minister Jim Hacker, or someone from the "All your shuttles are belong to us" crowd?

I sure hope it wasn't a terrorist hacker. If Osama Bin Hacking can bring down the shuttle from 200,000 feet with a computer, then he can launch our own missiles with the damn thing and start WWIII.

Somehow I don't think I'll lose too much sleeping worrying about it.

Just changing the code on one computer won't do it.

I'm not sure what exact configuration they're using now, since I left NASA in 1987, and the shuttles have been upgraded several times, but in the past, the shuttles had 5 flight computers on board. At any one time 3 computers ran in parallel, checking with each other to be sure they all agreed on the commands. If one of them started to disagreed with the others, it would taken off-line and one of the remaining two would be brought into the voting.

4 of the computers were identical, with identical software. 1 of the computers was a completely different design with completely different software. Designed by different people at a different company with the software written by different people at another different company.

This was to eliminate the problem of a built-in error in the computer or software design causing unexpected problems.

With the 5th computer a different design with different software, it was thought that this would cancel any errors in hardware or software.

Also the software loaded in the 4 identical computers was not the same. Each computer has its own software load, with separate storage and separate compiling.

That way a random error in one computer's software load would not be duplicated thru all 4 computers.

BTW when the shuttle first flew, the flight computer was about the power of an Apple II.

There is an 'EMP' device (Electro-Magnetic Pulse) that will put out such a (relatively)
large pulse of EM that all unshielded electronics will be burned out. But it does work like
a bomb, not a beam. If something like that had been used, there would have been more
knocked out than the shuttle :)

And it would have registered on instruments all over the continent. On radios or TVs it would
have registered as a blast of static, or they would have just gone dead.

What about primitive time-bomb?

Well, I was talking about computer hacking into the flight computers.

But, sure a bomb would work. Either time or temperature initiated.

Temperature would be better, especially if you're trying to take the Shuttle out on re-entry. You'd never know ahead of time when the Shuttle was going to land. It might come back early due to other problems, or come back late (1 or more days or orbits) due to weather.

The interior of the wing would be much warmer on re-entry than any other time during the flight. This could be the trigger to set off the bomb. The only problem would be getting the bomb into the wing area.

It would have to be done by the 'close-out' guy for that particular panel/area. It would have to be placed onboard as the area was being closed up. Before this point, the areas are inspected repeatedly by different people for anything that doesn't belong.

I guess you could try to disguise it as something that did belong, but then it would have also perform that function so that it wouldn't be noticed.

Early this morning, before NASA released any telemetry data, I told my wife that I thought the two most likely causes were a stuck or miscontrolled steering thruster, or a thermal burnthru.

This was also before I heard about the tank insulation striking the left wing during the launch phase.

This, plus the telemetry data about sensors progressively dying in the left wing, along with Occam's Razor, would lead me to believe that they had a burnthru due to missing/damaged tiles on the wing. But I could be wrong. It could just be coincidence.

And even if they had known on-orbit that they had a tile problem, it wouldn't have made any difference. With no Arm and no EVA suits, they couldn't have done any thing about it anyway. At one time there was talk about having some sort of tile repair kit onboard, but I don't think they ever did anything. One problem is that each one of the 30,000 time is pretty much custom-cut and shaped for where it is supposed to go. And getting an adhesive that would work in vaccum and the cold of space, and then survive the heat of re-entry wouldn't be easy either.

Seems like I remember that during one of the very early flights (STS-3? The one that landed at White Sands), they were worried about damage to some belly tiles. Without telling the public, they apparently had the Shuttle turn its bottom to space and looked at it with one of the KH-11 spy satellites. With no further explaination, they later said they had determined there was no problem with the tiles.

Thanks for answer. I think, you are right.

What you prognosis about future of Shuttle program? And ISS too? Have NASA now any idea to deliver cargo on orbit by another ways? And what about programs which researches new manners for jump out our “gravitational well”?

You didn't deserve what I said to you and I really am sorry for saying that. I was tense and I took it out on you and I shouldn't have.

SDI satellites watched the Columbia Re-entry and recorded the breakup. I received this info from a non-kook who received it from a non-governmental employee (also a non-kook) who watched it real time from an SDI control facility. Right after the incident they told him "I don't think you are supposed to be here".

He said that the video clearly shows the wing coming off.

Wait for the news media to pick up on this angle.