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New Shuttle Fuel Tanks Ready
confusion writes "NASA has completed the redesigned fuel tanks for the Shuttle scheduled to for launch in May or June of this year.
"On the new tank, NASA has reconfigured the struts and fittings where foam was prone to peeling off, and installed heaters to prevent ice from forming. The new tank has cameras that will allow ground workers to monitor for damage as the shuttle ascends.""
They're so soft you could problably crush a piece with your hands, which means they're easily damaged during flight (and we've seen the fatal results of that) Errr...it was an impact against the leading edge of the wing -- which is covered by reinforced carbon-carbon -- not the ceramic thermal tiles.
We have put nuclear reactors into orbit before. On one of the missions, the rocket even blew up. The net gain in radioactivity? ZERO. The casing around the material was designed to be able to tolerate a rocket explosion. They recovered the material (every last gram) and reused it on a later mission. The problem is not garunteeing a 100% success rate, the problem is making sure that if something does occur, that the material doesn't get spewed all over the contry side. And that is orders of magnitude easier.
Fly me to the moon Let me sing among those stars Let me see what spring is like On jupiter and mars
That's funny, because I seem to remember the most likely theory on the disaster was the foam hit and punctured the leading edge of the wing which is made of reinforced carbon-carbon (RCC), and not the heat resistant tiles (which are designed so a few can be lost during normal flights anyway).