On Tue, 02 Aug 2005 21:42:37 -0400, Glenn Holliday
wrote:

Gaz wrote:

NOW I am NO scientist or engineer (hell I am not even sure how to
spell those words) but surely it must be possible for NASA to
effectively sandwich that insulation foam, between the original tank
material, then the foam, then an outer layer of very thin but strong
aircraft aluminium or other strong but lighweight material, thus
hopefully preventing any faom from falling off that tank!

The tank was originally designed with a skin as you suggest.
The design was changed to bare foam to save weight on the
tank, in order to permit more pounds of cargo.

The tank certainly could be redesigned and manufactured with
skin. I haven't seen anything about recent discussions
of that option.

I would be surprised if they when that root. Weight with the tank is a
concern. That is why they stopped painting it. It used to be white.
-JATO
http://jatobservatory.org