Let's go for a walk
The spacewalk to snip some pieces of fabric from the underside of the Shuttle seems to have gone well. Always amuses me though all the talk that the tiles are oh so sensitive, such care has to be taken not to bump them during the walk, etc...
The tiles protect the Shuttle during reentry, and keep the astronauts from becoming well-done pot roast. Seems to me you that you don't want something like that, something that will endure the violence of a *rocket launch* and the heat of reentry, to be "sensitive".
The tile are some amazing technology. I remember a demo in high school, someone came to give a talk about the Shuttle. They took a blowtorch, got a tile red hot, put the blowtorch down, and just about immediately, put his hand on the tile. It was cool enough to touch. That's how quickly the tiles can dissipate heat.
The tiles protect the Shuttle during reentry, and keep the astronauts from becoming well-done pot roast. Seems to me you that you don't want something like that, something that will endure the violence of a *rocket launch* and the heat of reentry, to be "sensitive".
The tile are some amazing technology. I remember a demo in high school, someone came to give a talk about the Shuttle. They took a blowtorch, got a tile red hot, put the blowtorch down, and just about immediately, put his hand on the tile. It was cool enough to touch. That's how quickly the tiles can dissipate heat.
2 Comments:
At Fri Aug 05, 12:04:00 AM, Technomage said…
I was worried that those "super" tiles are glued in place by some guy named "Bubba" and that little snippet of cloth was cause by someone not paying attention to their job.
I do hope they make it back safely.
At Fri Aug 05, 08:37:00 AM, Jeff said…
Heh. Same deal with the cloth, though. If an inch of cloth sticking out is enough to put the Shuttle in danger, we're a *long* ways from building ships able to withstand direct phaser blasts.
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