FOAM HAS PLAGUED NASA FOR 5 YEARS

Mercury News ^

[fooman]

NASA has asked that tests involving freon free foam be witheld. What are they hiding?

Article shows a NASA engineer noting the difficulties in creating the same characteristics.

[isthisnickcool]

Hey Howlin!

I missed the shot@!! I went over to Ellington Field. I was 15 feet away from the president and missed the shot. He waved right at me and smiled. I have a lot of photos of the motorcade and AF1 lifting off. I'll try to post them later.

[Howlin]

You got a wave from the president? Listen, I want to see those pictures!

You've had a busy week!

[aristeides]

A7 in Israel is apparently now reporting on a memo sent by a senior engineer at NASA 2 days before the Columbia accident saying that it was very unlikely that the Columbia would be able to land safely. He apparently protested in front of experts.

I am reporting the contents as described on another forum. Can someone translate the Hebrew original?

[Fred Mertz]

Random ping for translation assistance to link in #143.

[isthisnickcool]

Listen, I want to see those pictures!

I'll add them to the place I put the freeper flower pictures. I'll ping you when they are ready later this evening. I don't have my camera cable here at work.

They have two limos. I shot the first one and he was in the second one. I've got a decent still digital camera but it takes a second to reset so I missed the shot even though he was looking right at me and waving.

He looked great. The best way I can describe him is "robust" looking and his eyes said "hey, I've got it covered". If that makes any sense.

[Howlin]

I've got a decent still digital camera but it takes a second to reset

Let me guess: Olympus?

[isthisnickcool]

Canon elph

[HAL9000]

Sorry, I haven't found a Hebrew-to-English machine translation site.

[MrConfettiMan]

Me no speak Hebrew.

[Howlin]

Our Olympus does that, too. We have to factor that in to get some pictures!

You've had a great week and you've done a lot of work for FR. Thanks again for taking those pictures to NASA.

[StopGlobalWhining]

Environmental friendly foam played a role in another major recent disaster. A contributing factor to the WTC collapse on 9-11 was the fire insulating foam that had been sprayed onto the steel beams during construction.

40 some floors up they changed the foam insulation they were using on the structures to an inferior but "more environmentally friendly" version, over the recommendations of safety experts. This insulation failed to provide adequate protection from heat when the towers were on fire.

This was widely publicized after the towers collapsed, and there was discussion about it here on FR. These eco-wackos couldn't care less if humans die as long as they succeed in imposing their nitwit theories and warped ideas on the rest of humankind.

[fooman]

I missed this discussion.

What is annoying is that fox has not picked up this part of the story.

I do not recall the media talking about the change in the material in the WTC.

[Kozak]

The vector that the ice/foam hit the wing was glancing. AT 13 to 16 degrees per the briefing, ok not so much force. BUT CNBC just said the hit was on the leading edge of the wing= 90 degree hit X mach 4 X 30 lbs.

Not quite. Analysis of the video of the foam impacting the wing gives a RELATIVE velocity of 61mph. Remember the foam and ice were only separated from the fuel tank for a split second before impact, its not like the shuttle hit an object standing still in space...

[fooman]

Point well taken. Its like throwing ice off the back of a car.

OF course, the ice would decel rapidly, but there is only a short distance.

Kool 61pmh. Thanks for your input.

[Fred Mertz]

Yonif, can you translate or summarize the news in the link to reply #143? Thanks.

[TLBSHOW]

NASA ON THE SPOT

February 4, 2003 -- Now that the initial shock of Saturday's shuttle catastrophe has sunk in, NASA officials are vowing to leave no stone unturned in determining what caused the horrific explosion that took the lives of the Columbia crew just minutes from touchdown.
Should they be trusted?

Back in 1986, the space agency made similar promises when the shuttle Challenger exploded just seconds after takeoff.

It quickly became apparent, however, that NASA was in no hurry to be forthcoming about the causes of that disaster. Not for nothing was the agency's acronym said to stand for "Never A Straight Answer."

Did NASA's burdensome bureaucracy become as complacent about space flights as the general public? Specifically, did warnings of potential safety problems go unheard by the top brass?

The General Accounting Office warned Congress two years ago that a declining shuttle workforce had reduced NASA's ability to safely support the shuttle program - a problem the GAO reiterated just last week when it revisited the issue.

Last April, the Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel - an outside board set up after the 1967 Apollo 1 fire - reported to Congress that it had "the strongest safety concerns" in 15 years about the shuttle.

Equally troubling is a published report that five members of that panel, and two consultants, were fired by NASA after the report was sent to Congress. A sixth member, upset over the firings, resigned.

Ultimately, the investigation into the Challenger disaster concluded NASA had discounted warnings that faulty seals on the booster rocket posed a potential threat.

All the more reason, then, that the inquest into the destruction of Columbia be conducted by a truly independent panel answerable directly to the White House and not to NASA.

It should investigate not just the physical problems, but the question of whether the mindset at NASA has been one of disturbing nonchalance about the continued - and now painfully obvious - risks and potential dangers of manned space flight.

There's no contradiction between enthusiastic support for manned space exploration and profound skepticism of an apparently sclerotic bureaucracy meant to achieve such a lofty goal.

This story won't be over soon.


http://www.nypost.com/postopinion/editorial/68231.htm

[Kozak]

Still considering how soft that tile was, may have been enough of a bang... Maybe in the future they could add a "shield" to the bottom of the orbiter to protect the reentry tiles, then dump it once they got to orbit. Just a thought.

[fooman]

Interesting. There is a news conference on now. Lots of foam questions.

The Shuttle admin's body language says to me that he is NOT happy about all of the foam questions.

[fooman]

Kostelnik the admin, just admitted that at least one tile could be lost with these params.

Well if that tile was on the leading edge, you could very well get a zipper effect.

Now on CSPAN

[TLBSHOW]

check this out!
http://news.google.com/news?q=nasa+memo%3B+shuttle&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&safe=off&sa=N&tab=nn