I had one of those tiles in my possession for a while (lost during a move). It consists of a thin glass coating on a foam.
It's not surprising they had a catastrophic failure. What is surprising is that it took so long to have this kind of failure.
However, from what I understand, they knew, soon after the launch that they probably had a problem and they didn't do an inspection. I think one of the programs I listened to, yesterday, mentioned that they didn't have the proper EVA suits, but all it would have taken is a visual inspection from the station personnel, right after undocking.
What really disturbs me is that they don't even carry a patch kit for TPS damage. I know how complex the TPS is (as Randall mentioned, it's like a tile mosaic of many different shapes), even so, some kind of patch could have been developed, if NASA had put any effort into it.
Tony Fredericks "Mind that bus!"
Amateur Rocket Scientist "What Bus?"
E.R.P.S. Member SPLAT!! - Arnold Rimmer
From: "Jake Anderson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "David Weinshenker" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: [ERPS] [[EMAIL PROTECTED]: [SAT-L] shuttle disaster]
Date: Mon, 3 Feb 2003 00:33:20 +1100
I think going back to ablatives is the wrong way for NASA to go
ablatives would be a good option for a commercial venture but NASA is meant
to be progressing
generally the commercial world is a step or 2 being the Govt research world.
they should replace the tile TPS system for sure but perhaps with something
like what they developed for the X38 or whatever it was. get that flight
tested and qualified. something like that (if proven) would be a fairly
significant benefit to the whole "returning from space at a great rate of
knots" crowd.
----- Original Message -----
From: "David Weinshenker" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Monday, February 03, 2003 12:41 AM
Subject: Re: [ERPS] [[EMAIL PROTECTED]: [SAT-L] shuttle disaster]
> Randall Clague wrote:
> > >I have never liked ablative methods. Yet they seem to be the best.
> >
> > I have a simple philosophy: Do What Works. Ablatives work.
>
> A fundamental issue here seems to be that the Shuttle TPS tile system
> has been just barely adequate at best... no previous shuttle actually
> burned up, but it seems that many flights have come back slightly
> scorched, with a few missing tiles and some localized heat damage
> to the metal structure underneath.
>
> It seems to me that a renewable ablative system, some sort of
> phenolic/fiber composite, perhaps - grind the char layer down to
> intact material and laminate on fresh layers to rebuild it to the
> original thickness between flights - could have advantages.
>
> It might have been better to assume that the TPS would need a
> refurbishment cycle between flights, and design it to accomodate
> that. The present system was initially assumed to be a once-and-
> for-all permanent installation, but it didn't work out that way,
> and its turnaround procedure is more like a museum restoration
> of an antique mosaic than an efficient industrial process.
>
> -dave w
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