Re: Space Shuttle Grounding....depressing....

In message <ikrve11tgu9qhr6gu71ug08r6htctjlh38@xxxxxxxxxx>, rastb5m@xxxxxxxxxx said:

>It is alleged that John Jr claimed:
>
>; Does anyone else find the grounding of the space shuttle yet again
>; depressing? I watched the press conference where they first mentioned
>; that piece of debris falling off and the reports were obviously ACHING
>; to report a catastrophe. It is SO depressing to see an organization
>; like NASA be plagued by journalists dying to report sensational news
>; and a government that refuses to to give them the funding to do what
>; they need to do.
>
>If the basic problem here is that the foam insulation on the outside of
>the tank is breaking off during launch, two solution ideas present
>themselves to me:
>
>* Change the material to something stronger
>* Redesign the tank so that the insulation is sandwiched between two
> layers of structural material.

Couldn't they just stretch a kevlar or steel wire mesh over it?
Perhaps with epoxy adhesive to bond it to the insulation?

I'm not clear whether the material is breaking up (i.e. in depth)
because it's too weak, or breaking off in chunks from the tank
because it isn't bonded to it properly (but still too weak I
guess).

Regards, /Peter/



.

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