From NASA engineering film: Sequential pix of debris hitting Columbia's wing

NASA via CNN Online & Yahoo News ^ | 2/3/03 | Wolfstar

[Wolfstar]

Released Monday morning, a high-speed NASA engineering film shows a piece of debris falling from the large external tank on the space shuttle Columbia's liftoff and hitting the orbiter's left wing. Bear in mind that these are extreme close-ups of a high-speed event. In the top couple of photos, you see only the top of the broken-off piece. Most of it is in the shadows. Depending on which clip you see and how slowly it is run, to the uninitiated person's eye, it can look either like the debris strikes the wing hard enough to pulverize the debris, or the debris strikes a glancing blow and bounces off in the direction of the main and booster engine exhaust.

[DoughtyOne]

Let me explain something about relative speed. If you've ever had your hood blow up on your car going fifty miles per hour, you'll throw the relative speed carpola out the window. That insullation hit the orbiter at hundreds of miles per hour. Of course I can't say exactly what speed, but it was nowhere near the 80-150 mph range.

Now, as for the density of the insullation, they've been talking about it all day on the news stations. It is applied like shaving cream and hardens to something on the level of a brick. That's their words, not mine. I've seen a number of people say it today.

[DoughtyOne]

LOL. Them obiters need braces.

[leadhead]

THERE WAS NOTHING THEY COULD DO

Could have tried to reprogram the re-entry sequences so the impacted area took less heat.

[TominPA]

Okay, a couple of facts to chew on......

A: Columbia couldn't go to the ISS, it was to heavy and didn't have the additional fuel on board to make it there.

B: Columbia carried NO EVA suits since there wasn't an EVA scheduled for this mission. So, even if there had been a rescue shuttle sent up the Columbia wasn't equipt with an air lock for EVA access.

C: There is no way the shuttle can carry enough spare stuff to cover every eventuallity that may occur.

Conclusion: Their luck ran out, plain and simple.....

[Vitamin Tom]

Actually, if Apollo 13's heat shield had been damaged by the explosion, there would have been nothing anyone could do. Of course, they didn't know one way or the other, but even if they had, repair would have been impossible, and they would have tried to land anyway.

[polemikos]

What are we looking at here?
Do you have a caption or link?

[isthisnickcool]

Photo Of CRACKS In Columbia In Israeli Paper

If I dropped my pants and turned around I could provide a crack that has as much to do with the shuttle as the cracks in this bogus picture do. Wonder if I could get them to put that in the rag of a newpapers this "photo" came from?

[Cold Heat]

*should* have managed to go for a few years without the spiders in space while they figure out how to develop a backup plan.

Do you make sure your undies are clean before leaving the house and getting into a car?

Some things are just ridiculous over-reaching and asinine behavior.

[Howlin]

I have a caption for it: FAKE.

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

Yep. Dan Goldin should have been dumped as director of NASA long before this.

When I was in school getting a bachelor's degree in engineering (1995-2000), I remember in 1997 two of my professors talking about NASA, which is significant because they both worked for NASA before (they were both currently doing work for Utah State's Space Dynamics Lab). They were complaining that NASA's management was reverting back to the way things were before the 1986 Challenger loss. They were saying that NASA management was getting too political and too arrogant to listen to the engineers.

[TaRaRaBoomDeAyGoreLostToday!]

The words were never said, "Houston we have a problem."

What part of there was nothing NASA could do, don't people get? It is done,it is sad, live and let learn. It is one thing to suggest or inquire info, but the blame game is ridiculous.

And why are there 398 thousand rocket scientists suddenly degreed and astute to everything NASA? (No offense to those that do know what they are talking about and did before Saturday.)

[Howlin]

But they could have assumed that this was serious and prepared the Atlantis Shuttle for a possible rescue mission.

No, they couldn't.

[Clean_Sweep]

"THERE WAS NOTHING THEY COULD DO."

I think this statement is asburd. I'm positive that the 7 people on board would have been full of ideas had they known of their predicament.

[DoughtyOne]

Gee Tom then that means no shuttle could deliver suits to them right? There is an airlock. Suits could be placed there. Any questions?

[MainFrame65]

To dock with the ISS would require being in (almost) the same orbital path as the ISS. Worst case - consider one object being in a polar orbit and the other equatorial, at (again, nearly) the same altitude. although they would cross paths every hour or so, their relative speed would actually EXCEED their orbital speeds, since the paths would intersect at 90 degrees.

[meyer]

there's another thread that shows that photo to be a fake. There are various explanations as to why that is so.

[Cold Heat]

I see that this comes from Jeff Rense's site.

Nuff said!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[glock rocks]

that photo is bogus.

[demlosers]

here's the link to the cracks in Columbia photo

[DoughtyOne]

I tend to agree with you, but I'd hold off for a bit. This is a hoax or the proverbial stuff is headed for the oscilator.