Commander 598 Posted February 3, 2003 Share Posted February 3, 2003 I'm curious as to how soon we can expect Plasma and Ion engines to become a standard for Spacecraft. For those that don't know, ion engines were succesfully tested on the Deep Space 1 probe thingy. Plasma engines are in development that could "supposedly" power a craft at about 80 miles a second or something like that. They use little fuel, just some gas like hydrogen I think. As you know, plasma effectively melts anything we know of. To counter this, the plasma will "supposedly" be controlled by a superconducting magnet. Thats all I can pull from memory. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admiral Odin Posted February 4, 2003 Share Posted February 4, 2003 Also plasma engines, could reduce the trip to mars for 39. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nute Gunray Posted February 19, 2003 Author Share Posted February 19, 2003 After thinking for a while, I have revived this thread in order to make wild claims. I suspect that the left landing gear was the cause and not some zany piece of foam. I think the gear didn't deploy, but did come open. The door fell off for reason x. Temperatures go up and such. Then the landing gear deployed, but due to the stresses involved, the wheel assembly tore free. This wacky theory accounts for: 1) increased temperatures in the left wheelwell and wing 2) increased drag on the left side by virtue of the remains of the landing gear sans wheels 3) no sensor readings from wheels, as they were somewhere over New Mexico while the shuttle was over Texas. After this, I suspect the left wing failed and came off. Shuttle goes out of control, the rudder comes off, right wing comes off, and missile-like remains decompress violently. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nitro Posted February 20, 2003 Share Posted February 20, 2003 I'm scared... I was debating posting pretty much the same theory... n00t and I agreed on something. This is worse than the time I proved a girl wrong... This will unmake existance! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nute Gunray Posted February 20, 2003 Author Share Posted February 20, 2003 i came up with that idea about a week ago but didn't want to say anything about it to anyone while i waited for later developments Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nitro Posted February 20, 2003 Share Posted February 20, 2003 I'm not sure when they first menitoned the wheel well temperatures, but that was when I first considered it... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
K_Kinnison Posted February 20, 2003 Share Posted February 20, 2003 actaully, at that point the landing gear should be saftly tucked away, and the 60 degree in crease is not much when most of the air outside has turned into Plasma. If there was a breach there would be more then a 60 degree increase. At that momment in flight the shuttle is completly automated. best theory so far is some seperation of the tiles or a not so micro-meteror hit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nute Gunray Posted February 20, 2003 Author Share Posted February 20, 2003 Of course the landing gear should be safely tucked away. It was 200k feet up going almost 13k mph. The problem is, in my mind, that it failed to do that. The plasma theory is starting to fall apart. They're pretty sure plasma hadn't started to form yet that early in the descent. Tiles just falling off doesn't account for a lot of the problems they had. It doesn't account for why there was increased heating over most of the wing, instead of localized heating where the tiles were missing or damaged. It also doesn't account for the nature of the sensor failures. Something definitely happened to the wheel assembly. Sensors indicated a heat increase over the whole of the landing gear, but a mere heat increase doesn't explain why the wheel assembly appears have to be destroyed. I don't buy the "the tires exploded" because if the heating was enough to cause the tires to explode, it was enough to cause the explosive bolts in the gear to go first and deploy the landing gear. The shuttle was also fighting drag but not enough to be deployed gear which is why i figure most of the gear tore free after it deployed. I'm pretty sure that even the landing gear of the shuttle wasn't meant to be exposed to high temperatures and 12500 mph stresses. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Commander 598 Posted February 21, 2003 Share Posted February 21, 2003 Some way, the left wing was breached, and fire tore through it accounting for the heat and tire pressure problems. It then proceeded to get into the rest of the craft where it decompressed and exploded. Also, I heard today that it had just been outfitted with all new electronics. Bye, bye 1987 Radioshack components. I doubt this was the cause. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZBomber Posted March 2, 2003 Share Posted March 2, 2003 Very sad indeed. I hope the families are comfored during this sad time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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