Posted on 02/02/2003 2:54:30 PM PST by NormsRevenge
NASA: Shuttle Temperature Rose Suddenly
By PAUL RECER, AP Science Writer
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -
NASA (news - web sites) officials said Sunday that space shuttle Columbia experienced a sudden and extreme rise in temperature on the fuselage moments before the craft broke apart.
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NASA space shuttle program manager Ron Dittemore said the temperature rise 60 degrees over five minutes in the mid-fuselage was followed by an increased sign of drag that caused the shuttle's computerized flight control system to try to make an adjustment to the flight pattern.
Dittemore cautioned that the evidence was still preliminary, but that one of the possibilities was that there been damage or a loss of thermal tiles that protect the shuttle from burning up during re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere.
"We are making progress," Dittemore said, adding that the combination of new engineering data and an observer who reported seeing debris from the shuttle while it was still passing over California may create "a path that may lead us to the cause."
The shuttle broke up shortly before landing Saturday, killing all seven astronauts. Most of its debris landed in eastern Texas and Louisiana.
Earlier Sunday, NASA administrator Sean O'Keefe named a former Navy admiral to oversee an independent review of the accident, and said investigators initially would focus on whether a broken-off piece of insulation from the big external fuel tank caused damage to the shuttle during liftoff Jan. 16 that ultimately doomed the flight 16 days later.
"It's one of the areas we're looking at first, early, to make sure that the investigative team is concentrating on that theory," O'Keefe said.
The insulation is believed to have struck a section of the shuttle's left side.
Dittemore said the engineering data showed a temperature rise in the left wheel well of the shuttle about seven minutes before communication was lost with the spacecraft. One minute later, there was an even more significant temperature rise in the middle to left side of the fuselage.
The drag on the left wing began a short while later, causing the shuttle's automated flight system to start to make adjustments.
"There may be some significance to the wheel well. We've got some more detective work," Dittemore said.
The manufacturer of the fuel tank disclosed Sunday that NASA used an older version of the tank, which the space agency began phasing out in 2000. NASA's preflight press information stated the shuttle was using one of the newer super-lightweight fuel tanks.
Harry Wadsworth, a spokesman for Lockheed, the tank maker, said most shuttle launches use the "super-lightweight" tank and the older version is no longer made. Wadsworth said he did not know if there was a difference in how insulation was installed on the two types of tanks.
Wadsworth said the tank used aboard the Columbia mission was manufactured in November 2000 and delivered to NASA the next month. Only one more of the older tanks is left, he said.
O'Keefe emphasized that the space agency was being careful not to lock onto any one theory too soon. He vowed to "leave absolutely no stone unturned."
For a second day, searchers scoured forests and rural areas over 500 square miles of East Texas and western Louisiana for bits of metal, ceramic tile, computer chips and insulation from the shattered spacecraft.
State and federal officials, treating the investigation like a multi-county crime scene, were protecting the debris until it can be catalogued, carefully collected and then trucked to Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana.
The effort to reconstruct what is left of Columbia into a rough outline of the shuttle will be tedious and painstaking.
When a shuttle piece was located this weekend, searchers left it in place until a precise global position satellite reading could be taken. Each shuttle part is numbered; NASA officials say experts hope to trace the falling path of each recovered piece.
The goal is to establish a sequence of how parts were ripped off Columbia as it endured the intense heat and pressure of the high-speed re-entry into the atmosphere.
At least 20 engineers from United Space Alliance, a key NASA contractor for the shuttle program, were dispatched to Barksdale for what is expected to be a round-the-clock investigation.
Other experts, including metallurgists and forensic medicine specialists, are expected to join the investigation. Their focus will be on a microscopic examination of debris and remains that could elicit clues such as how hot the metal became, how it twisted and which parts flew off first.
In addition to NASA's investigation, O'Keefe named an independent panel to be headed by retired Navy admiral Harold W. Gehman Jr., who previously helped investigate the 2000 terrorist attack on the USS Cole (news - web sites).
Gehman's panel will also examine the Columbia wreckage, and come to its own conclusions about what happened. O'Keefe described Gehman as "well-versed in understanding exactly how to look about the forensics in these cases and coming up with the causal effects of what could occur."
Joining Gehman on the commission are four other military officers and two federal aviation safety officials.
Officials used horses and four-wheel-drive vehicles to find and recover the shuttle pieces. Divers were being called in to search the floor of Toledo Bend Reservoir, on the Texas-Louisiana line, for a car-sized piece seen slamming into the water.
Some body parts from the seven-member astronaut crew have been recovered and are being sent to a military morgue in Dover Air Force Base in Delaware.
Columbia came apart 200,000 feet over Texas while it was streaking at more than 12,000 miles an hour toward the Kennedy Space Center (news - web sites). A long vapor trail across the sky marked the rain of debris.
I can tell you one fact I DO know. When the military plans a operation,a redunancy of equipment and personell ARE a part of all their planning. This is called contingency planning. They hold equipment and personell in reserve in case they are needed. There is no reason NASA couldn't do the same as a matter of course,and keep another shuttle held in reserve and ready to go within a day (at the MOST) if needed. There is no reason to not have EVA suits and tethers aboard each flight in case the crew needs to examine a part of the shuttle before the decision is made to call in backup,or try to land it. Unlike a lot of the other stuff NASA is involved in,this AIN'T rocket science. It's just basic,fundamental,good planning.
Check out The Space Shuttle Orbiter and Ceramic Tiles - Some History and Information ... I got to get back to digging.
How'm I doin? 8-|
This *might* have only minor implications: longevity and reducing the repairs that need to be made.
Sort of along the lines of changing from Polyester cord tires to Steel belted radials instade ...
No real change in safety - just a longer usable life for one style/type of tile over the other ...
BIG DIFF when you have the manpower and budget to do this ... NASA doesn't ...
We're all waiting for a definitive answer on that one ... "increased drag" on the left side is cause - but *why* is the $64,000 question ...
They ran short on money for gas ... seriously - you *plan* for your orbit/orbital inclination and final orbit height and that wasn't the plan for STS-107 ...
Thank you for your service.
Seriously, many of the ideas floated on these threads have been asked and answered about two dozen times already. I can understand the need for some repetition, but geez, Louise!!
BUT for the recorded increase of temps and subsequent loss of temp sensors - I would agree with you ...
Barnacle glue?;-)
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