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Shuttle Foam Test Yields Hole in Wing - Associated Press
Shuttle Foam Test Yields Hole in Wing
Columbia Investigators Fire Foam Insulation at Shuttle Wing, Blowing Open 2-Foot Hole The Associated Press SAN ANTONIO July 7 — The team investigating the Columbia disaster fired a chunk of foam insulation at shuttle wing parts Monday and blew open a gaping 2-foot hole, offering dramatic evidence to support the theory of what doomed the spaceship. The crowd of about 100 gasped and cried, "Wow!" when the foam hit. The foam struck roughly the same spot where insulation that broke off Columbia's big external fuel tank during launch smashed into the shuttle's wing. Investigators believe the damage led to the ship's destruction during re-entry over Texas in February, killing all seven astronauts. It was the seventh and final foam-impact test by the Columbia Accident Investigation Board, and it yielded by far the most severe damage. The 1.67-pound piece of fuel tank foam insulation shot out of a 35-foot nitrogen-pressurized gun and slammed into a carbon-reinforced panel removed from shuttle Atlantis. The countdown boomed through loudspeakers, and the crack of the foam coming out at more than 500 mph reverberated in the field where the test was conducted. Twelve high-speed cameras six inside the wing mock-up and six outside captured the event. Hundreds of sensors registered movements, stresses and other conditions. NASA will continue gathering more information about the poorly understood pieces that line the vulnerable leading edges of shuttle wings, board member Scott Hubbard said. One month ago, another carbon shuttle wing panel smaller and farther inboard was cracked by the impact, in addition to an adjoining seal. This time, the entire 11 1/2-inch width of the foam chunk rather than just a corner during previous tests hit the wing, putting maximum stress on the suspect area. http://abcnews.go.com/wire/US/ap20030707_1189.html |
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Shuttle Foam Test Yields Hole in Wing - Associated Press
Rusty B wrote:
Shuttle Foam Test Yields Hole in Wing Columbia Investigators Fire Foam Insulation at Shuttle Wing, Blowing Open 2-Foot Hole The Associated Press SAN ANTONIO July 7 — The team investigating the Columbia disaster fired a chunk of foam insulation at shuttle wing parts Monday and blew open a gaping 2-foot hole, offering dramatic evidence to support the theory of what doomed the spaceship. The crowd of about 100 gasped and cried, "Wow!" when the foam hit. In the immortal words of Rosanne Rosanna Dana, Well now, that's different. |
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Shuttle Foam Test Yields Hole in Wing - Associated Press
"Rusty B" wrote in message
om... Shuttle Foam Test Yields Hole in Wing Columbia Investigators Fire Foam Insulation at Shuttle Wing, Blowing Open 2-Foot Hole The Associated Press SAN ANTONIO July 7 - The team investigating the Columbia disaster fired a chunk of foam insulation at shuttle wing parts Monday and blew open a gaping 2-foot hole, offering dramatic evidence to support the theory of what doomed the spaceship. The crowd of about 100 gasped and cried, "Wow!" when the foam hit. The foam struck roughly the same spot where insulation that broke off Columbia's big external fuel tank during launch smashed into the shuttle's wing. Investigators believe the damage led to the ship's destruction during re-entry over Texas in February, killing all seven astronauts. It was the seventh and final foam-impact test by the Columbia Accident Investigation Board, and it yielded by far the most severe damage. The 1.67-pound piece of fuel tank foam insulation shot out of a 35-foot nitrogen-pressurized gun and slammed into a carbon-reinforced panel removed from shuttle Atlantis. The countdown boomed through loudspeakers, and the crack of the foam coming out at more than 500 mph reverberated in the field where the 500 MPH!!!!! How did anyone come up with that figure? Seems excessive to me. test was conducted. Twelve high-speed cameras six inside the wing mock-up and six outside captured the event. Hundreds of sensors registered movements, stresses and other conditions. NASA will continue gathering more information about the poorly understood pieces that line the vulnerable leading edges of shuttle wings, board member Scott Hubbard said. One month ago, another carbon shuttle wing panel smaller and farther inboard was cracked by the impact, in addition to an adjoining seal. This time, the entire 11 1/2-inch width of the foam chunk rather than just a corner during previous tests hit the wing, putting maximum stress on the suspect area. http://abcnews.go.com/wire/US/ap20030707_1189.html jbw |
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Shuttle Foam Test Yields Hole in Wing - Associated Press
"Mr. Computer" wrote in
. com: "Rusty B" wrote in message om... Shuttle Foam Test Yields Hole in Wing Columbia Investigators Fire Foam Insulation at Shuttle Wing, Blowing Open 2-Foot Hole The Associated Press The countdown boomed through loudspeakers, and the crack of the foam coming out at more than 500 mph reverberated in the field where the 500 MPH!!!!! How did anyone come up with that figure? Seems excessive to me. http://www.caib.us/news/meetings/ph0...ent_byrne.html -- JRF Reply-to address spam-proofed - to reply by E-mail, check "Organization" (I am not assimilated) and think one step ahead of IBM. |
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Shuttle Foam Test Yields Hole in Wing - Associated Press
"Steven Van Impe" writes:
/me gets an image flash of all remaining shuttles being blown to pieces by the CAIB investigators... "look, if you punch it here, it breaks too!" I didn't realize they were stripping the existing fleet to perform these tests. Couldn't they take spare parts for this, or produce test samples? Not really. You want to test with parts that are as close as possible to the ones on the aircraft you're investigating. Since Columbia was such an old bird, this means finding RCC that's flown many times before, not some spare sitting on the shelf or a new part just delivered by the manufacturer. Besides, given the down time, it might be prudent to put the best, newest RCC parts possible on the remaining orbiters, before next flight. Considering the degradation of the panels due to time sitting on the pad (sea air and paint flecks from the launch pad), this seems especially prudent. Jeff -- Remove "no" and "spam" from email address to reply. If it says "This is not spam!", it's surely a lie. |
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Shuttle Foam Test Yields Hole in Wing - Associated Press
"jeff findley" wrote in message ... "Steven Van Impe" writes: Besides, given the down time, it might be prudent to put the best, newest RCC parts possible on the remaining orbiters, before next flight. Considering the degradation of the panels due to time sitting on the pad (sea air and paint flecks from the launch pad), this seems especially prudent. Jeff The RCC parts were given a 25 flight life limit when they were originally flown. After the first few flights, this number was raised to 100. This shift was made using very little data. Columbia was on her 27th flight. I wonder if this point will be investigated. Dosco |
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Shuttle Foam Test Yields Hole in Wing - Associated Press
"Dosco Jones" wrote in message rthlink.net... "jeff findley" wrote in message ... "Steven Van Impe" writes: Besides, given the down time, it might be prudent to put the best, newest RCC parts possible on the remaining orbiters, before next flight. Considering the degradation of the panels due to time sitting on the pad (sea air and paint flecks from the launch pad), this seems especially prudent. Jeff The RCC parts were given a 25 flight life limit when they were originally flown. After the first few flights, this number was raised to 100. This shift was made using very little data. Columbia was on her 27th flight. I wonder if this point will be investigated. Dosco What was this original 25 flight life based on? There doesn't seem to have been any experimental evidence of the susceptibility of the RCC panels to foam impact before the CAIB tests these past two months, so maybe the 100 flight limit was based on just as good evidence as the original 25. Then anyone who objected would be forced to prove that it wasn't safe to fly the RCC on the 100th flight, using only evidence that wouldn't impeach its reliability on the 25th flight. Murray Anderson |
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Shuttle Foam Test Yields Hole in Wing - Associated Press
In article ,
"Murray Anderson" writes: What was this original 25 flight life based on? There doesn't seem to have been any experimental evidence of the susceptibility of the RCC panels to foam impact before the CAIB tests these past two months, so maybe the 100 flight limit was based on just as good evidence as the original 25. Then anyone who objected would be forced to prove that it wasn't safe to fly the RCC on the 100th flight, using only evidence that wouldn't impeach its reliability on the 25th flight. A best-guess conservative esitmate before anybody had gathered any real experience. If yo sit down & figure it out, hamankind has about 30 +/- hours of aerodynamic flight experience in the hypersonic region. A;; but about 30 minutes of that comes from Shuttle re-entries. The assessment was changed as we gathered experience, to match the behavior observed. -- Pete Stickney A strong conviction that something must be done is the parent of many bad measures. -- Daniel Webster |
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Shuttle Foam Test Yields Hole in Wing - Associated Press
"Peter Stickney" wrote in message news In article , "Murray Anderson" writes: What was this original 25 flight life based on? There doesn't seem to have been any experimental evidence of the susceptibility of the RCC panels to foam impact before the CAIB tests these past two months, so maybe the 100 flight limit was based on just as good evidence as the original 25. Then anyone who objected would be forced to prove that it wasn't safe to fly the RCC on the 100th flight, using only evidence that wouldn't impeach its reliability on the 25th flight. A best-guess conservative esitmate before anybody had gathered any real experience. If yo sit down & figure it out, hamankind has about 30 +/- hours of aerodynamic flight experience in the hypersonic region. A;; but about 30 minutes of that comes from Shuttle re-entries. The assessment was changed as we gathered experience, to match the behavior observed. Do you have a reference for this, like a report or published paper used by Nasa? For example they could have taken the leading edge panels off one of the orbiters and done a complete set of non-destructive tests to determine their state. Ideally they would have done destructive tests on some of the panels too, but we know they didn't. Murray Anderson -- Pete Stickney A strong conviction that something must be done is the parent of many bad measures. -- Daniel Webster |
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