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#1
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Shuttle pad damaged
....during the latest launch; inside of the flame trench got torn up by
the exhaust blast: http://spaceflightnow.com/shuttle/sts124/080601pad/ Looking a lot like the eruption of Mount St. Helens, here's debris from the flame trench hitting the water during launch: http://spaceflightnow.com/shuttle/st...plash_full.jpg Pat |
#2
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Shuttle pad damaged
"Pat Flannery" wrote in message
dakotatelephone... ...during the latest launch; inside of the flame trench got torn up by the exhaust blast: http://spaceflightnow.com/shuttle/sts124/080601pad/ Looking a lot like the eruption of Mount St. Helens, here's debris from the flame trench hitting the water during launch: http://spaceflightnow.com/shuttle/st...plash_full.jpg Pat They are 40 years old; can't expect them to keep up the pace forever. Just the same, that's a hell of a lot of damage - I don't recall seeing anything like that before. |
#3
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Shuttle pad damaged
"Pat Flannery" wrote in message
dakotatelephone... ...during the latest launch; inside of the flame trench got torn up by the exhaust blast: http://spaceflightnow.com/shuttle/sts124/080601pad/ Looking a lot like the eruption of Mount St. Helens, here's debris from the flame trench hitting the water during launch: http://spaceflightnow.com/shuttle/st...plash_full.jpg Pat Maybe they got a REALLY rough ride on this trip! Are there any vibration sensors on the shuttle to determine just how rough the ride was? |
#4
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Shuttle pad damaged
Alan Erskine wrote: They are 40 years old; can't expect them to keep up the pace forever. Just the same, that's a hell of a lot of damage - I don't recall seeing anything like that before. I imagine you get something like the "zipper effect" on the Shuttle's TPS tiles - as soon as one block of concrete breaks free it creates a hole that causes aerodynamic and acoustic effects from the SRB and SSME exhaust to cause more blocks in its vicinity to break free. I found it interesting that the damage wasn't limited to the interior of the flame trench, but caused buckling on its exterior also: http://spaceflightnow.com/shuttle/st.../paddamage.jpg If the basic structure of the concrete that makes up the pad base was seriously damaged, this could be a pretty major repair to accomplish in a timely manner. The last thing you want is to have the whole structure destabilize under the vibration of launch like loose soil in a earthquake and have the pad fall apart during launch. Here's a photo of the interior of the flame trench, showing the damage to its walls: http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/ind...=7206 5;image Pat |
#5
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Shuttle pad damaged
Alan Erskine wrote: Maybe they got a REALLY rough ride on this trip! Are there any vibration sensors on the shuttle to determine just how rough the ride was? I assume there would be, as part of the new systems to detect debris impacts post-Columbia, if they didn't have them installed all along...and I think they did have that data right from the beginning of the program. I want to know if something happened before this flight that affected the pad... say, heavier rain than usual that saturated the soil under the concrete and caused it to shift under the vibrations of launch. This report mentions a "bulged blowout": http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/content/?cid=5438 I looked that up, and it sounds fairly serious from a structural point of view: http://www.masonryconstruction.com/i...79§ionID=0 Pat |
#6
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Shuttle pad damaged
"Pat Flannery" wrote in message
news:5OednaKjB687gtnVnZ2dnUVZ_vSdnZ2d@northdakotat elephone... I want to know if something happened before this flight that affected the pad... say, heavier rain than usual that saturated the soil under the concrete and caused it to shift under the vibrations of launch. This report mentions a "bulged blowout": http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/content/?cid=5438 I looked that up, and it sounds fairly serious from a structural point of view: http://www.masonryconstruction.com/i...79§ionID=0 Sounds like what would happen if you grab a balloon and squeeze it around the middle - the air has to go somewhere, so it bulges at the ends. |
#7
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Shuttle pad damaged
On Mon, 02 Jun 2008 11:27:50 -0500, Pat Flannery
wrote: I want to know if something happened before this flight that affected the pad... say, heavier rain than usual that saturated the soil under the concrete and caused it to shift under the vibrations of launch. This report mentions a "bulged blowout": ....If not rain, then perhaps some sort of pipe leak or other groundwater surging? Or perhaps a crack in the masonry allowed the sound suppression flood to seep in and become superheated to the point necessary to cause that much damage? Either way, it sure as hell wasn't foam that caused that :-P OM -- ]=====================================[ ] OMBlog - http://www.io.com/~o_m/omworld [ ] Let's face it: Sometimes you *need* [ ] an obnoxious opinion in your day! [ ]=====================================[ |
#8
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Shuttle pad damaged
OM wrote: On Mon, 02 Jun 2008 11:27:50 -0500, Pat Flannery wrote: I want to know if something happened before this flight that affected the pad... say, heavier rain than usual that saturated the soil under the concrete and caused it to shift under the vibrations of launch. This report mentions a "bulged blowout": ...If not rain, then perhaps some sort of pipe leak or other groundwater surging? AH-HA! The plot thickens! And what has very high quantities of water being shot into it for the reduction of acoustic effects on launch? The flame trench! And its plumbing would be underground to prevent damage to it during launch, and subject to high frequency vibrations conducted to it during each launch by the pad structure surrounding it. And after twenty year or so of launches... Yeah, that makes perfect sense. Top notch hypothesis, OM! Pat |
#9
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Shuttle pad damaged
Would the amount of superheated water vapour represented by the SSMEs'
exhaust be significant? |
#10
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Shuttle pad damaged
Neil Gerace wrote:
Would the amount of superheated water vapour represented by the SSMEs' exhaust be significant? If that were the case, don't you think there'd be more damage in the *south* flame trench (where the SSME exhaust goes) rather than the north (where the SRB exhaust goes, and where the damage occurred)? |
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