Website Link to Photos of Recovered Shuttle Pieces

Email & Picturetrail website ^ | Unknown | Kristin Moor Krumrey

[OrangeDaisy]

Received an email forwarded several times with a link for pictures of shuttle debris. The email seemed to be originally from

Kristin Moor Krumrey
Technical Operations
ISS Stowage Integration- OC4

Many of the pictures I had never seen before. Hope this isn't a duplicate post. I tried searching on everything I could think of.

The website has automatic sequencing, or you can click on "Next."

Link to Shuttle Debris Slideshow

[aimhigh]

I find it amazing that any of this survived the fireball entry.

[OrangeDaisy]

I find it amazing that no one was hurt on the ground!

[seams2me]

You are so right!

[DoughtyOne]

Three things. 1. Couldn't belive the condition of that large round object. It seemed pristene. 2. If you ever wanted to know the layer structure of the tiles, you could see it in the tile piece. 3. I almost wondered if NASA really wants folks to have this good of a look at debris.

[meema]

Thank you, Daisy! Stored them on my hard drive.

[strela]

3. I almost wondered if NASA really wants folks to have this good of a look at debris.

NASA would have been crucified in the press and on the Internet if they had tried to stop people from publishing pictures of debris. I suspect that graphic debris pictures are among the very least of NASA's problems these days.

I have the very sad feeling that pieces of the Columbia (genuine or fake) will be readily available via anonymous email addresses/spamvertized/EBay merchants based in foreign countries for years to come. While it seems tantamount to grave robbery to me, US law doesn't extend everywhere, especially the Internet.

[DoughtyOne]

No, I didn't think NASA would make any stink over the photos. I just thought that they probably weren't too thrilled.

As for the pieces, it would take a very low class A.H. to steal them. I suspect pieces will show up like "actual wood" from the Cross if you catch my drift. Eighty thousand tiles will be sold, when only 20 thousand existed on the shuttle.

[I'm ALL Right!]

Anyone know the composition of the tiles? I'm curious as to what they are made of.

[Kevin Curry]

Silica.

[DoughtyOne]

I don't, but if you'll go to http://www.google.com and search for shuttle tiles, you should find a number of articles and pictures on them.

The heat protective portion is about two inches thick. It's rather suseptible to damage as it grinds off easily.

Check it out.

[chadwimc]

I saw the tiles once at a science fair. They're like very dense styrofoam. Each tile is surprisingly light weight. They have some kind of hard coating on them that protects the surface. I scratched one with my thumbnail, but it was a used one that was damaged already. The guy said that new tiles were very durable.

[Mo1]

Bump for a later read

[Captain Beyond]

I know one thing I would definitely study the tiles that survived the crash. I would go back and look at the batch numbers for the good tiles Vs. the damaged tiles and see if anything special occurred during the processing that gave the surviving good tiles more strength. Then I would study the bonding and strategic placement of tiles to look for better arrangements.

I do not relished the NASA people's job right now. They have to analyze and figure out what caused the accident and then figure out away to prevent it. If they go with new stuff there will be the nightmare of retesting and recertifying of raw materials and processes and not to mention the amount of quantifying quality for the new product. That is one huge load to be carrying.

[DoughtyOne]

Thank you for your firsthand report. I appreciate it.

[DoughtyOne]

I agree.