Thanks for your comments...

According to the finder, apparently there were no obvious
manufacturer's marking on the components nor any recognizable
aircraft-type fasteners, and it impacted directly down rather than
skidding along the ground first. There were no other parts found in
the area. And I haven't found any part of a plane that looks like
this or has this functional capability.

I'm not sure if the cylinders are actuators or propellant thruster
valves - the person who found it tells me there are 10 or so of them
in an array. If the prior, perhaps it's part of an early satellite.
If the latter, I don't know why there would be so many unless they
provide some sort of shock absorbing function. It appears there are
manifold tubes connecting them together and note that there is a
connection in the middle of the cylinder - not usual for an actuator -
more normal for a thruster valve.

The sheet metal design details make me think it's a properly designed
and manufactered item rather than a one-off R&D assembly which would
look much less-sophisticated.

The history of the area where found leads me to believe it was not
part of any local activity - despite the considerable military useage
of the desert, including rocket development, none of it appeared to
involve large items with this level of technology. I think it came
from some distance away either as part of a rocket, or from space.

I'm thinking it's part of an old satellite, possibly Russian.

-Paul



On Mon, 24 May 2004 08:35:25 GMT, Doug...
wrote:

In article ,
says...


Paul wrote:

The item in the photo at the link below was found impacted on the
desert floor .... anyone seen anything like this before?

Please excuse the shadow - the photographer wasn't paying attention.


121KB

http://home.earthlink.net/~jpa_2/wreckage_sm.jpg


The three tubular things look like hydraulic or pneumatic cylinders.

My first thought was to wonder if this was found anywhere near
Columbia's groundtrack over CA. But while Columbia was shedding some
pieces as early as over California, my understanding is that it was only
shedding relatively small pieces of wing and tile at that point.
Nothing like this. Also, most of the stuff coming off the shuttle at
that point was going so fast that it was completely consumed during its
subsequent entry heating. This stuff looks like it wasn't seriously
burned, just crunched real good. (Looks like it might be a touch
charred around the edges, though.)

Could be a piece of a satellite... or of an airplane that suffered some
major mishap in the skies above the desert. And remember that the
southwest US deserts are used as the setting for a lot of air fighting
practice -- including the shooting down of drones, both to test missile
systems and to hone pilots' skills in the use of weapons systems. So,
that's another potential source.

I doubt there's anything sinister about it, though.

Doug