How did a large size piece of foam bring down Space Shuttle Columbia?

Question

The foam was soft and weighed a couple of pounds.

Answer 1

First you need to ask why the foam came off. NASA changed the formulation of the foam because the original formula used chlorofluorocarbons as a propellant. Once that changed the formula, they began having problems with adhesion to the tank. Therefore chunks of it fall off when the shuttle launches.

The foam is high density, the piece that hit the wing probably weighed as much as 5-6 pounds. The shuttle was moving at several hundred mph by the time the foam it the wing. Even something soft with that kind of weight hitting at that velocity will do damage. The amount of damage to the tiles did not have to be excessive to cause the Columbia to burn up. There only needed to be a hole the size of a dime to cause the fire and destruction.

Answer 2

i believed in knocked off some of the heat tiles from the underside of the ship which resulted in a flame out when the un protected areas of the shuttle were exposed to the high heat of reentry. So basically it wasn't the foam it was the loss of heat tiles caused by the foam

Answer 3

Damaged heatshields. The shuttle was no longer properly protected when it tried to re-enter Earth's atmosphere. The friction and heat generated from moving through air at such a high rate of speed must be insulated against and controlled. The angle of the shuttle as well.

Answer 4

The foam dislodged or separated some tiles in the leading edge of the wing. These heat reflective tiles are critical on re-entry as the temperature builds on the front surfaces of the craft. Heat built up in and around the wing, causing structural failure.

Answer 5

It may just be foam, but it hit at a high speed and damaged some heat tiles. Think of driving a motorcycle without a helmet on the freeway at 70 MPH and a bug hits your nose. Same thing, but a hundred times worse.

Answer 6

They did recreate the disaster in the lab by shooting foam at the same material at like 500 mph. At that speed, soft lightweight foam blew a hole in the heat shield material.

Answer 7

It hit at high-velocity, which dislodged a piece of insulation.

The missing insulation allowed the friction from atmospheric re-entry to overheat the walls of the shuttle, which in turn caused the shuttle to catch fire.

Answer 8

The tank has liquid Hydrogen and liquid oxygen both very cold. The insulation is to thermal insulate the tank. It wasn't the 2 lb. foam but the 10 lb. of water in the foam.

Answer 9

He didnt. He dedicated the commute to the human beings of Afghanistan. The Taliban wasnt depending till 1994 by a pair thousand theology scholars. those he's refering to were the mujahadeen warring parties who may later bypass on to strive against the taliban lower than the call "Northern Alliance" Edna writes: "Reagan's CIA experienced Osama a thanks to be a terrorist." faux. Osama received certainly no training from the CIA in any way, Whats extra, he wasnt a foot soldier. He became an organizer and financer.

Answer 10

the mass of an object in space is magnified so that it didn't matter the size or weight. We need force fields to be invented so this dosn't occur.