Whay is the space shuttles having problems with exterior tiles now vs. in the past?

Question

The USA 'Discovery' shttle will launch July 4 and there is concern about the exteror fuel tank foam amd tiles on the suttle coming off. What's up about this vs. not haing problems int he past?

Answer 1

Actually the foam tiles have always been a problem. Even the very first shuttle flight in1981, STS-1, suffered tile losses but they were in non-critical areas. Tile loss was such a concern that NASA had even tried developing a tile repair kit but later dropped the concept before the first flight deciding it wasn't worth the risk and training. Budget concerns may have also been an issue.

Answer 2

The chance of foam hitting tile and causing a fatal problem has always existed. However, it has a relatively low probability so it was never an issue in the public eye. That changed once foam and tile caused a fatal accident. Even so, the increase in coverage of the tile/foam problem is not related to the increase in likelihood that a problem will occur.

The tiles have always been problematic. I remember reading about shuttle designs before the first shuttle launch and thinking that the tiles would eventually be the cause of a problem -- which, unfortunately, is what happened. The foam, too, has always been a problem. Both the tiles and the foam are design issues that were never solved to the same standard as other design concerns.

On the other hand, the tiles and the foam that can damage them are replaced before every shuttle mission. Thus it is not a matter of the ships getting older. Instead, the one in a thousand chance of a foam and tile accident happening finally came to pass. It was probably inevitable.

Answer 3

prolly cause its so old now but im not sure. Re-entry is very harsh on the shuttle. Most asteroids, whic are made of solid rock and iron usually, burn up entirly in the atmosphere if that doesnt tell you how stressful reentry is i dont know what to say. Not much attention was given to shuttle launches in the past because they werent a big deal cause they always went smoothly until Columbia that is. Now its a big deal because media is asking questions and NASA is answering them. No one used to care really but now its like mass producing a car without a hood over the engine. Columbia has cause Americans and Scientist to ask things like "is it safe?", "is it worth all the money?" "is it worth 7 intelligent lives to simply put a hunk of junk in space and repair and addon to another hunk of junk?" No one really ever cared before cause there had only been 1 one problem before(Challenger, 1987) and that was thought to be a freak accident on the count of a mechanical failure, which was later fixed. Then all of a sudden Columbia incinerates in midair on re entry. I was watching cartoons when it happened brodcast were interrupted on cartoons.

Answer 4

in the last shuttle disaster... they new the tilies were loose.. but thought it was non-threatening. The tiles are meant for insulation and it was no concern that they were coming off the shuttle during its ascent. But peices of the foam tiles found they're way into the rocket outtake... causing an unexpected effect. The tiles caused so much friction in the engine that it exploded. Yea I know... who would have thought???

Answer 5

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Answer 6

The space shuttle fleet is over 20 years old. Just like aging automobiles develop problems over time, so do aging spacecraft.

Either that, or we've just been unbelievably fortunate that it wasn't a problem in the past.

Answer 7

New materials in the construction of the shuttles and those new materials don't nessesarily 'adhere' as the other materials priviously used in the constrution materials used together to make up the whole of the suttles...different heat/cold variations not to mention liquid/gasious/etc. ellements that inter-act via pressures and such....

Answer 8

The shuttles are getting old and just like anything old it's wearing out.