Why not just create a cradle made out of lightweight materials (fiberglass would work) that sits detween the shuttle and the tank. That would deflect 90% of the debris without adding more than a few hunder pounds of weight.
This is of course assuming that the foam/ice fall is in fact the culprit. Joe Latrell On Mon, 2003-02-03 at 13:38, Bruce Moomaw wrote: > > http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/space/02/03/sprj.colu.shuttle/index.html > > http://www.msnbc.com/news/867336.asp?0si > > The foam fragment is now officially the prime suspect in the disaster -- > NASA's engineers concluded during the flight that it could have caused > damage ranging from removal of a single tile to removal of tiles "over an > area of 7 by 30 inches", but that this probably would not have led to a > burnthrough. It now starts to look as though the fragment actually hit near > the seam of a wheelwell door -- one of the most vulnerable spots on the > Shuttle -- so that the tile gap did the fatal damage that was considered > statistically unlikely by those engineers. (A whole series of observers all > over California -- including a whole group of Cal Tech scientists -- now > consistently report seeing several small fiery objects fall off the Shuttle > during reentry, followed by a much bigger object.) > > But this hardly makes it a fantastically unlikely freak > accident --significant tile damage on Shuttles as a result of debris (both > foam and ice) falling off the external tank occurs regularly. (One engineer > told "60 Minutes" last night that there have been flights in which, on > return, "half the tiles on the vehicle were damaged".) It now looks very > much as though NASA applied the same reasoning on tile damage which (as > Richard Feynman pointed out) they were applying to O-ring damage before > Challenger: we've gotten away with it so far, so let's keep flying without > any expensive modifications until we run out of luck, and only then run back > to Congress with our begging bowl... > > And -- even if we do solidly nail this down as the cause -- the > modifications needed to correct it will be difficult. Either we have to > find a way to ensure that no debris -- either foam or ice -- falls off the > external tank during launch, or we have to find a way to greatly harden the > Shuttle's tiles. Either way, we're looking at a mandatory program delay > resembling that after the Challenger disaster, at a time when the Station > needs constant manned maintenance. > > == > You are subscribed to the Europa Icepick mailing list: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Project information and list (un)subscribe info: http://klx.com/europa/ == You are subscribed to the Europa Icepick mailing list: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Project information and list (un)subscribe info: http://klx.com/europa/
