Columbia

From: SPC <spedraja_at_mail.ono.es>
Date: Sun Feb 2 11:18:28 2003

Here in Spain, one Astrophisycs engineer that worked in NASA installations
in Robledo de Chavela (Madrid) and the Apollo project, comment about the
accident these matters:

* He discard completely any kind of terrorist act
* During the startup of mission, TV cameras saw how the cover of the solid
   combustible go down and impact against one of the wings. In opinion of
   this specialist, is very possible that some of the ceramic pieces of the
wing
   (very critical and very small) could be damaged.
* NASA saw this later in the TV videos and some engineers did an evaluation
   of the possible damages and its impact in the re-entry in the atmosphere.
and
   conclude that, in appeareance, it would be possible without problems.
* Seconds before the explossion, the temperature sensors of the left wing
stopped
   the transmission. This occurs sometimes cause of high temperatures. The
speculation
   is this: the damaged ceramic pieces stop in its effectivity and the hot
enter inside
   the spaceship. Explosion.

About the evaluation of the NASA engineers about the possible damage in the
eing,
and how could be possible that some external covers could be broken in the
jump to the
space of the ship... Well, it`s a very delicate matter. Would you speak to
the
astronauts about possible problems in the re-entry of the ship if you would
know it ?
I must clear: the ceramic pieces can`t be replaced in space (actually), and
all the
Space Shuttle ships go to the garage after flight to substitute the damaged
ceramic pieces,
using some special glue to manage it. With this system, is very possible
that some covers
could suffer cause of the vibrations of the startup, break and go down.

With independence of this, my sincere condolences: some of us admire the
space career
of the USA, consider it an inversion in the future of all the mankind, and
some like me
consider that Europe should be joining more efforts with the USA that
actually in this
matter. This is the country that we admire. And some of us would be very
happy to see
(and even contribute in our own countries with our own taxes) how some of
the
militar costs would be derived to the space conquest.

Greetings

Sergio
Received on Sun Feb 02 2003 - 11:18:28 GMT