John Doe wrote:

Craig Fink wrote:

Ahh, I see, your visor would have been open, a conscious logical
decision. Mine would have been closed, ever hopeful that someone with an
infinite improbability drive just might happen along...


Would middeck crewmembers have had ANY indication (verbal or otherwise)
or anomalies being worked upstairs before decompression began ?

Would they have had any sensation that the shuttle was in an unusual
attitude with nose way up ? Any unusual sensation of G force (especially
if this was their first flight) ? If not, then they would have had no
reason to drop their visor. (Middeck crew would have only seen a orange
glow in the side hatch, no horizon to give them any hint of attitude.

Another aspect not dealt with the report is that of "macho" behaviour.
This is pure specualtion on my part, but is it possible that a crew
member lowering his visor would be seen as being "chicken" and
exhibiting fear and that there would be some resistance of crew members
to lower their visors at the first sign of what they may see as trouble
but what might be perfectly normal ? (especially for first time fliers)

The report has also repeated many times that lowered visor are not "OK"
for the shuttle because it causes the release of too much O2 for cabin.
Looks to me like there are dis-incentives to lower the visor.


If one crew member was still busy getting into his seat at the time
power went out, it is likely that the crew member next to him might have
had his hands busy trying to help him, holding straps etc. And without
sufficient light, they may not have had sufficient visual cues on
decompression. (I assume there would have been instant fog in the cabin
as humidity would have condensed ?)

Obviously, there would have been immense noise of air flowing out. Is it
fair to assume that this would have been heard upstairs as well ?

Would the CDR/PLT have had visual indication of bad attitude (nose way
up) looking out the windows ? Or does the plasma glow pretty much
obliterate any view of the horizon ?

I'm sure the passengers on the middeck would have had plenty of information
about their situation, starting with the loss of tire pressured discussion.
The Commander and Pilot most likely would have noticed the diverging
control surface trim as the aerodynamics slowly changed, possibly some
discussion about it. Watching the trims would have been like watching a
countdown clock to loss of control. When the trim hits it's limit of
movement, 1, 2, and 3 degrees, their out of control. Towards the end, yaw
jets comming on, the last ditch effort of the flight control system.

Prior to loss of control, the Commander may have asked someone to take a
look behind to see if they could see anything in the plasma trail. A
logical and reasonable request. A view out the upper windows, back towards
the tail might (probably would) have revealed differences in the plasma
between the left and right side. Burning aluminum and disturbed flow,
possibly even super bright white flashes as globs of liquid aluminum get
instantly dispersed and burn in the slipstream. The bright flashes might
have even been visible to those in their seat, like a giant flash bulb
going off behind them, flashing through the upper windows and on to the
floor. There was quite a bit of time between the first indications of
something amiss and loss of control. After loss of control, during the
initial pitch up and yaw, he may have been able to get back in his seat and
buckle his lap belt. But, apparently not enough time to get his shoulder
straps or helmet on before the gyrations built up.

Shuttle Surfing during a normal entry, walking around the cabin would be
like walking around an airline's cabin, except the gee force would be very
small initially, then slowly build. The equivalent of walking on an
asteroid for a little while, then the Moon for a bit, then Mars, Earth, and
a mega-Earth. And all this fun would start at entry interface as the
vehicle began to decelerate. The time in each regime would be fairly long.
A planetary simulator. Kind of surprising we don't hear about more
astronauts taking this opportunity to experience walking around on other
planets, especially the ones on the middeck who normally have nothing to
do, and lots of space to do it in. An interesting environment.

Just a bunch of speculation.
--
Craig Fink
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