Remains from ALL Seven Astronauts Have Been Located

NASA ^ | 2/2/2003 | Pyro7480

[Pyro7480]

It was announced during the NASA press conference today, after a question from Israeli media, that remains from ALL seven astronauts on Columbia have been found.

[weikel]

It is true there is no oxygen forgot about that. What are the effects of such extreme heat without combustion?

[wimpycat]

Ive heard the friction causes the air ahead of the spacecrafts reentry path to get up to around 12,000 degreesIf the hab pod is breached then anyone inside would be burned to ashes which would then be scattered everywhere.

But I heard they had already completed the orbital re-entry where the temperatures get that high. They were out of the communication blackout portion of re-entry, which, I assume, is where the temperatures get that high.

[Normal4me]

The orbiters leading edge surfaces are only designed to withstand temps of 2850 degrees according to the director of shuttle operations.

Regarding the post above about space suits and pods, Heat wouldn't be the only factor but the G forces are so extreme that a human life form has no chance of remaining intact. The complete destruction of the vehicle proves this.

[SuziQ]

They were out of the communication blackout portion of re-entry, which, I assume, is where the temperatures get that high

You're right. They had already come through the upper atmosphere and the 'burn through'. I think that is at about 400,000 feet. They had already re-established communication with Mission Control and were down about 200,000 feet when the break up occurred.

God Bless their families, and the people at Mission Control who lost good friends.

[wimpycat]

Oh, yes. I was only trying to explain how body parts could fall to earth intact enough to be identified as part of a certain person.

[Normal4me]

Off topic but did anyone catch CNN this afternoon when they ran the crawl at the bottom of the screen stating that the orbiter was traveling at 18 times the speed of "Light"? lol

An obvious mistake but humourous all the same.

I got the screen cap if anyone wants it to post.

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

Their bodies have returned to Earth as their souls have returned to Heaven. Thoughts and prayers for their families.

[Normal4me]

Oh ok, sorry. I misunderstood.

[Arkinsaw]

If it the hab pod was breached and they claim to have found the remains then im becoming a conspiracy theorist.

Please don't. I saw a tank that still had rubber gaskets on it, I saw a strip of rubber, I saw a piece of the seat belt harness that still had a cloth identification tag on it. If rubber and 2 inches of cloth survive then human body parts encased in a pressure suit and inside a metal tub certainly can. The last thing we need is more conspiracy theorists.

[wimpycat]

Think nothing of it.

[maxwellp]

Yes, it will be good for the families of the astronauts if some remains are found. May the Angels greet them and lead them into paradise.

[capitan_refugio]

I think your description of the physics is on the right track. The orbiter was in series of banking yaw maneuvers to slow down. At the point when the orbiter lost the ability to glide aerodynamically, it (and the associated pieces) began to drop like a projectile. It appears from the films of disaster, when the parts started to come off, the orbiter began to "corkscrew" (probably due to an imbalance of pressure on the wings, as if part of a wing had detached). Then the orbiter probably began to tumble, resulting in the picture of the many contrails. Tumbling of the wreckage certainly dissipated some of the energy and slowed. As the wreckage dropped into the heavier atmosphere, depending on the shape and composition of the pieces, it would slowed to its terminal velocity.

[doyle]

a thought

[twyn1]

Also trying to not be too graphic -- but the remains found yesterday (thigh, arm & hand, partial torso and skull, leg) could have been from a single individual body that was somehow ejected before the others. If the rest of the crew "pod" was then found, and they have 6 more sets of indentifable remains (or even just 6 skulls), they would know they've accounted for all of those who were lost.

[weikel]

Well Dr Joe pointed out there is no oxygen to support combustion. Thats the thing I didn't consider.

[Afroggy]

Yeah, at that altitude they would have had maybe a second of useful consciousness, if that. Even at about 50,000 ft you're only conscious for less than five seconds. 02 tends to disassociate itself from the hemoglobin molecule very quickly at high altitudes. Without a functional pressure suit, I'm sure gases dissolved in the blood (including 02) would become gaseous instantaneously at over 200,000 ft.

That's assuming there was an immediate decompression and the suits lost integrity at the same time, which is quite possible. The crew module (or whatever you want to call it), was breached as one of the first bodies found showed signs of burns and trauma, as did that helmet. The body or the helmet wouldn't have been by itself if the module hadn't been breached so I'm sure the breach happened quite rapidly.

Regarding how they know they have all the crewmembers? Without knowing the specifics, I can tell you that in aircraft accidents a count of trunks or skulls is a fairly common method of enumerating the victims involved. Given that the human body is 90%+ water, it takes a lot of heat over a long period of time to accomplish a complete incineration. Though the heat of re-entry (3000+ degrees) is enough, it wouldn't have persisted long enough.

Oddly, in the case of the pilots, there is a common belief you're going to survive the emergency as that is the way you're always trained. Your training experiences leave you with the expectation that you'll survive the incident, even if it seems objectively unlikely. After a few decades of simulator training, I found that the my real emergencies felt no different than the real training events. You fly the way you're trained and the lower section of my brain always expected similar outcomes, whether it was reasonable or not.

No, I can't imagine there would have been much time for contemplations of mortality on the part of the crew.

[Amelia]

And your expertise on all of this comes from....?

[weikel]

Its simple physics but I forgot to consider in my analysis that there was little oxygen.

[Betteboop]

Don't worry about spelling--it's all a transliteration anyway.

Amen!

[clamboat]

I don't doubt that, with DNA testing, they could eventually account for all seven but I can't imagine they've accomplished that certainty so quickly.

They did not say they had identified all 7. They said they had found remains from all 7. That's very simple. If they have found 7 trunks, with our without heads or limbs, then they know they have found remains of all 7. Unless you are suggesting that some of the heros may have had more than one chest, etc?

Since there has been at least one graphic description of finding a trunk with no limbs, I'm guessing that's basically what they have, along with some miscellaneous limbs and skull fragments.