Observation on TPS damage on Orbiter

NASA photos | 2-3-03 | BoneMccoy

[spunkets]

The obiter, even with this record weight, started to fall apart over CA at 22Kmph. It supposedly disintegrated at 18K. Since the orbital v was around 26Kmph the weight of the vessel wouldn't matter much. Since the reentry v's the same, they'd have to dump more than an order of magnitude in weight to get a significant reduction of time in the heat zone.

[Robert A Cook PE]

Interesting observation and recommendation.

[John Jamieson]

You've got a lot of screwed up numbers there spunk and not very much real science. Do some research if you want to play in this game.

[spunkets]

"if you want to play in this game."

You've got some strong comments regarding numbers, but nothing to back them up. If you have a problem with any of it, be specific.

[freepersup]

What's puzzling to me is, on the one hand there is ample evidence of debris shedding over several states, but little to no data is being relayed from onboard the ship to reflect the ship's shedding or demise. This shedding reached critical mass (in it's effect on the ship) and the proverbial wheel's came off.

I guess the without warning aspect is what I speak to.

I find it very interesting that some evidence points to wing deformity, per the military telescope at the observatory in NM.

The Fox video capture of the shuttle where it zooms in, shows the shuttle's position to be off course (relative wind / angle of attack) by 90 degrees. The ship is wings level, traveling sideways with the nose facing south. How long it had been in that position (by then) is unknown, but at 12-15,000 mph, it's not likely to remain intact for much longer (than the time of video capture / exposure).

I'll take another look at the time line.

[John Jamieson]

26,000 mph will throw the shuttle or anything else out of the solar system ...... is that a start.

[John Jamieson]

26,000 mph will throw the shuttle or anything else out of the solar system ...... is that a start.

[spunkets]

All right, that should have been ft/sec...26000 ft/sec. The other units listed in #421 should be ft/sec, not mph also.

[r9etb]

All right, that should have been ft/sec...26000 ft/sec.

25,400 fps is more accurate... ;-)

[Cold Heat]

Well, I located the mpeg that I wanted (apparently shot by the same camera cuz it is out of focus), of the bottom (z-) of the wing.

I have a dell laptop, so I can tilt the screen to get a 3-part 3-d view if I combine them in my head so they layer.

I see the chunk of insulation strike edge on, slightly left(maybe a foot or less) of the point where the wing flares to the front and directly behind the leading edge(maybe 6 inches), of the wing. It appeared to hit right on the line between the black edge and the tiles.

In short, looks like it hit the first row.

As before, when I saw the video on TV, I cannot see any change in hue or a mark of any kind.

Is it possible that the impact damaged the first tile that mates with the leading edge and allowed plasma to flow into the void and burn out the hole until it broke through underneath the leading edge?

This is the only way I can figure the tile impact may have damage the wing enough to cause a eventual loss of the craft.

[Cold Heat]

Please read the above post and tell me something about your tile diagram.

The impact point that I picked, is a tile directly behind the leading edge and it adjoins a border of something that surrounds the left wheel cover.

What would serious damage to the one tile behind the leading edge do to the wheel well integrity, gasket or seal?

[Budge]

Here is the photo we have been wanting to see.

[Budge]

This is a smaller version of the picture.

Something certainly seems to be going on, but what?

[John Jamieson]

I think the jagged edge on the front of the wing is not structure but burning. The trail behind the wing lines right up. I assume the photo is a negative and we're really looking at a very bright orbiter against a relatively dark sky. Something's burning.

Can you invert the video?

[Budge]

Can you invert the video?

Will try, John.

[spunkets]

Is that the same video? That's roughly were I saw the hit.

[Truth29]

On another thread, in response to my question, someone suggested that the ragged edges might be pixillation since they appear on all of the edges of the shuttle, not just the the left wing. That doesn't explain the apparent plume off the trailing edge of the left wing, but there is also a smaller plume off the trailing edge of the right wing. Professional photo analysts can hopefully give a more definitive answer.

[Budge]

Here you go.

[freepersup]

Perhaps the plume coming off of the trailing edge of the right wing is evidence of heat and or smoke. An infrared exposure would be helpful.

[Cold Heat]

yup, I did not have access to it other than the couple times I saw it on the tube. I was forced to get real player, which I despise, but I came the the same conclusion.

I will send a copy of the tile diagram to Budge and he can post it to see. I marked the place where I believe the object hit. It was edge, or actually corner first into the wing.