Re: Columbia

From: George Murphy (gmurphy@raex.com)
Date: Sat Jun 07 2003 - 16:49:10 EDT

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    Walter Hicks wrote:
    >
    > I have some experience with light objects (chaff) dispensed from aircraft
    > flying around 900 ft/sec. It only takes several milliseconds for them to
    > get to ground speed.
    >
    > deceleration > 900/(3*10^-3) = 300,000 ft/sec/sec = approximately 10,000
    > gees.
    >
    > I'd expect foam to act somewhat similarly. Maybe not thousands of gees --
    > but hundreds at least. Best assumption (for a first approximation) would
    > be that the foam was at zero velocity when the shuttle struck it.

            Perhaps so but we're talking about a block of foam, not something with a very
    high surface to volume ratio. I should look up some numbers & an estimate the turbulent
    drag.
                                                            Shalom,
                                                            George
                                                                                            
               

    George L. Murphy
    gmurphy@raex.com
    http://web.raex.com/~gmurphy/

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