Author Topic: Columbia's demise  (Read 3979 times)

Offline Tahii

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Columbia's demise
« on: 07/05/2005 10:52 am »
Another shuttle newbie question here.

The damage that was done to Columbia happened during ascent. Why did Columbia not break up (or at least get more severely damaged) on ascent? Surely air would be rushing into the hole at thousands of kilometers a second, causing even more damage?

Offline Space101

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RE: Columbia's demise
« Reply #1 on: 07/05/2005 11:38 am »
That's a great question. I believe the aerodynamic pressure would have been reducing all the time despite the speed rising, thus less "air" rushing in to affect the profile too much. The heat which destroyed the inners of the left wing is only on atmosphere interface on the way in.

I'd need to know when the breach occured (height etc.) to know better.
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Offline Tahii

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RE: Columbia's demise
« Reply #2 on: 07/05/2005 12:17 pm »
I would have thought that the 'amount' of air wouldn't matter too much, it would be the speed of it that would cause the damage - thats how Columbia got damaged in the first place - not through the weight of the foam, but the speed it was travelling.

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RE: Columbia's demise
« Reply #3 on: 07/05/2005 12:44 pm »
>not through the weight of the foam<

Well the way that works is the foam decelerated from the speed of assent to zero in no time. So the Orbiter smashed into foam, not the other way around and thus it was like throwing a brick at a glasshouse.
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Offline JamesSpaceFlight

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RE: Columbia's demise
« Reply #4 on: 07/05/2005 12:57 pm »
Or running a glasshouse into a brick :)

Offline Tahii

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RE: Columbia's demise
« Reply #5 on: 07/06/2005 06:48 am »
As I said, it was speed related, not really the weight of the foam that caused the damage (although it would figure into the equation a bit).

Still I don't understand fully why Columbia didn't get more heavily damaged on ascent, or even lose the wing totally.

Offline WARPed

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RE: Columbia's demise
« Reply #6 on: 07/06/2005 08:58 am »
Am I not right in saying that the damage by the foam did nothing structural to the orbiter itself (didn't hole the wing or anything so no air was rushing in) so there would have been little effect during ascent beside maybe extra drag from the damaged leading edge of the wing.

Wasn't the damage caused purely by the excessive heat of re-entry creaping past the damaged tiles and then melting/damaging the structure ultimatley causing it to fail.  Without that kind of heat present (ie during ascent) surely nothing further would have happened besides maybe further dislodging of more tiles.
WARPed

Offline Tahii

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RE: Columbia's demise
« Reply #7 on: 07/06/2005 10:29 am »
That would explain it.

All we heard here on the news is how a piece of foam ripped a hole in the wing on ascent. Stupid tvnz.

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