"Matt Mc_Carthy" wrote to "JIM HOLSONBACK" (07 Jul 03  02:26:58)
 --- on the topic of "Shuttle Columbia Tests"

 MM> That is the only test that I have read about also, and I share the
 MM> same question.  I _think_ I can rationalize that the shuttle was at
 MM> max acceleration on a trajectory from 0 MPH to 17,000 MPH, and with

No, max acceleration doesn't happen until after SRB separation and above
a substantial amount of atmosphere. However the SRB ride is very rough
and tends to shake things a lot such as making a piece of ice/foam come
loose. I wonder why NASA never figured out to apply a little de-icing
solution just before liftoff like is done for planes in winter here.
Ethylene glycol not green enough or something?


 MM> NASA knowing the split second timing from the breakaway to impact,
 MM> they probably calculated the change-of-speed of the shuttle itself
 MM> during that approximate three seconds from breakaway of the foam until
 MM> impact time.
 MM> They might not have even needed to calculate for air resistance.  If
 MM> at that point in time the shuttle was accelerating at ~200MPH per
 MM> second, that 2.8 seconds to impact would give about 530 MPH increase
 MM> in shuttle speed relative to the speed of the piece of foam.

Like Leonard wrote, in that case it would be more a case of the shuttle
hitting the foam rather than the foam hitting the shuttle. In addition I
think the aerodynamics of a piece of foam would tend to make it
decellerate even more so that the shuttle would hit it even harder than
by simply its acceleration.

 Mike
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