[spunkets]

Here's a page from NASA with 3 mpegs of the debris hit. It looks like ice rather than foam, because the foam is too resilient to explode like that, larger frags leaving the impact area would be evident. If the ice weighted 1 lb and was going 300mph, it would have 6K ft-lbs of energy. Since it was bigger than pint size, I'm sure it had more. The ship was said to be going ~1000mph(mach 1.3) at this point. I also e-mailed NASA to get the frame rate of those flicks. If they answer, I'll post it.

[Budge]

Good find.

[spunkets]

Here's the dimentions of the ship. Using the videos in the link I posted and using the arrow key to single frame the 30 frame/sec video, I get from 120min to 270mph max for the chunk at impact. The video isn't that good for an easy tell. It must be massive or the relative velocity would be larger. It appears to be ice, exploding when it wacks the wing. Must be at least 5lbs. So at 150mph, it's at least 3500 ft-lbs. That's a significant hit. If someone plays with the video, they can get better numbers.

[steve86]

Does anyone have estimates of the Shuttle's:

1) "Indicated" Airspeed (i.e. taking #2 into account)

2) Density Altitude

3) Are these terms from low-altitude aviation meaningful in near-space?

[XBob]

46- mpeg files - EXCELLENT

The three files run on windows media player, and when you blow it up to full screen, you can see a whole lot more.

mpeg 1 - clearly shows a piece coming off in the area of max turbulence, near the forward attach point, moving up for some feet, then turning in the turbulence, and moving down. (this is the video everybody has been looking at.

mpeg 2 - not so clearly, but enough to see when expanded to full screen, it shows the underside of the wing, and the thing hitting the underside of the wing just about where the front of the wheel well would be.

mpeg 3 - shows the same thing again, slightly differently.

These are great, you can see what is hidden on the first mpeg.

External Tank Debris Footage Clip 1, Clip 2, Clip 3

[lepton]

If the ice weighted 1 lb and was going 300mph, it would have 6K ft-lbs of energy.

the heavier the patch, the less the relative speed of the impact - remember that the debris was going the same speed as the orbiter when it broke loose. A light fluffy object would decelerate rapidly from the air-resistance, but a heavier object, such as ice, would both maintain its forward momentum, and be more prone to flutter outward. If uncoated ice, a flat piece of ice would likely begin coming apart just from the stresses when it turned perpendicular to the air-stream.

[XBob]

46 - "Here's a page from NASA with 3 mpegs of the debris hit. It looks like ice rather than foam, because the foam is too resilient to explode like that, larger frags leaving the impact area would be evident. If the ice weighted 1 lb and was going 300mph, it would have 6K ft-lbs of energy. Since it was bigger than pint size, I'm sure it had more. The ship was said to be going ~1000mph(mach 1.3) at this point. I also e-mailed NASA to get the frame rate of those flicks. If they answer, I'll post it."
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Did you ever get the frame rate?