In relation to getting to orbit, it takes very little altitude to "get cold." The average temperature at 30,000 feet is -40. What is the temperature outside of an airliner at cruising altitude?
VIRTUAL CERTAINTY OF FAILURE SHOWN FOR SHUTTLE SEAL - NYT, 1986
The temperature tests bear out, in exacting detail, the general thesis of Dr. Feynman's experiment. The data show that a ring at 25 degrees Farenheit - about the temperature of the joint on Jan. 28 - has less than a fifth the resiliency of the same ring at 75 degrees. Resiliency is of critical importance because the design of the joint calls for the ring to jam into a narrow slot within milliseconds of ignition in order to stop hot gases from escaping. ...In the first set of tests, the two parts of the joint, one containing a metallic tongue, or tang, and the other its fitting groove, or clevis, cleared each other by 20 thousandths of an inch. That put the O ring under relatively little compression and allowed enough room for gases to scoop the ring into the channel, where it could block the gases.
A set of tests conducted at the Marshall Space Flight Center showed that the seal performed perfectly down to 25 degrees, while a parallel set of tests run at Morton Thiokol Inc., the manufacturer of the rocket, showed the first signs of failure at 40 degrees.
In the second set of tests, the clevis and the tang were only 4 thousandths of an inch apart, putting the O ring under significant pressure. In that case, the tests show, the joint sealed only at 55 degrees or above; below that temperature the seal was too hard to seat properly in the channel. Test reports indicate that serious leakage occurred at 40 degrees in a Marshall test and at 50 degrees in a Morton Thiokol test; below those temperatures the seals failed altogether.
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Is there anything you don’t know? LoL
I was pissed off that the bolt on rocket booster contract went to a company in Utah, Morton Thiokol, to please Senator Jake Garn of Utah.
I was arguing against the design LONG before the disaster because it meant that solid rocket boosters had to be segmented which meant they had to HAVE the joints and seals in the first place, a POINT OF FAILURE IF I EVER SAW ONE!
What really galled me was that the Utah company was not even the lowest qualified bidder, but one of the higher bidders! Not only that, the unassembled booster sections had to be shipped from Utah to Florida. . . WHICH WAS THE REASON FOR THE SEGMENTED DESIGN! They had to be loaded on railroad flat cars and they needed to be short enough to take the curves of the railroad without hanging over too far! Ergo, segmented design.
The best design was from a company IN FLORIDA that would make them full length, no segments, solid from one end to the other. . . no O ring seals. No O rings, no Columbia disaster. . . and their design was about 20% per booster CHEAPER! And they were located about 20 miles away from Canaveral and the boosters could be delivered by barge. WOW! What a brilliant design and solution. . . but their Senator was NOT Chairman of the Air and Space Committee...