Challenger disaster
Discussion
Whilst googling for some Discovery pictures I found this site about the Challenger disaster:
http://www.mission51l.com/
Whilst most of it looks like the work of a paranoid conspiracy theorist; one of the main points of his argument is that the booster rockets from Challenger crossed paths before they exited the fireball that was the shuttle. I’m curious to know why this would be so significant in terms of identifying the cause of the Challenger disaster. Anyone care to comment?
http://www.mission51l.com/
Whilst most of it looks like the work of a paranoid conspiracy theorist; one of the main points of his argument is that the booster rockets from Challenger crossed paths before they exited the fireball that was the shuttle. I’m curious to know why this would be so significant in terms of identifying the cause of the Challenger disaster. Anyone care to comment?
The enquiry found that an o-ring burned through on one of the SRB's and thus the SRB acted like a blow-torch on the side of the main fuel tank causing the explosion. I can't be arsed to re-read the cryptic please-buy-my-book come on ... so let's say it was officially the SRB on the left. The reason the o-ring failed is because it was too cold and had lost its elasticity. When the shuttle was sitting on the pad just before launch with the SRBs burning, the SRBs gets bent by the torque they're generating and the o-ring nearest to the shuttle gets compressed. During flight, this torque is reduced and the SRBs straighten. If the o-rings don't expand, they will leak on the side facing the shuttle and the main tank ... boom.
If I'm reading this bloke's ideas right, I think it's something like this. The investigators saw the blow-torch leak in pictures of the SRB after it emerged from the fireball. As they didn't think the SRBs crossed in the fireball they interpretted it as being the left SRB. The direction of the blow torch, and the pattern of the explosion would then all fit together neatly.
But if the author is correct and the SRBs did cross, then the blow-torch SRB is the right SRB and the blow-torch would have been pointing away from the fuel tank. The leak would not therefore have been caused by a cold o-ring being compressed and then failing to re-expand because the leak was coming from the side that had been stretched, not compressed.
If I'm reading this bloke's ideas right, I think it's something like this. The investigators saw the blow-torch leak in pictures of the SRB after it emerged from the fireball. As they didn't think the SRBs crossed in the fireball they interpretted it as being the left SRB. The direction of the blow torch, and the pattern of the explosion would then all fit together neatly.
But if the author is correct and the SRBs did cross, then the blow-torch SRB is the right SRB and the blow-torch would have been pointing away from the fuel tank. The leak would not therefore have been caused by a cold o-ring being compressed and then failing to re-expand because the leak was coming from the side that had been stretched, not compressed.
Challenger didn't actually explode.
The blow torch effect of the escaping gases melted the lower attachment strut of the SRB which then broke free at that point. The strut was still atttached at the top so the SRB pivoted around the top strut, puncturing the upper part of the External Tank. At that point, aerodynamic pressure caused the whole ET to collapse causing the Liquid Hydrogen and Liquid Oxygen contents to mix and ignite. It was more a rapid burning than a straightforward explosion. Once the tank collapsed, the two boosters took off on their own. The pressure wave of the collapsing tank would have acted on the two boosters causing them to change course and head off in different directions - which they did. The pressure wave also pushed the Orbiter away from the stack which caused the Orbiter to break up because of the abnormal aerodynamic loads.
The only real explosions which actually occured were the explosions of the hypergolic fuels for the nose mounted thrusters stored in tanks in front of the Orbiter's cockpit.
>> Edited by Eric Mc on Monday 8th August 13:56
The blow torch effect of the escaping gases melted the lower attachment strut of the SRB which then broke free at that point. The strut was still atttached at the top so the SRB pivoted around the top strut, puncturing the upper part of the External Tank. At that point, aerodynamic pressure caused the whole ET to collapse causing the Liquid Hydrogen and Liquid Oxygen contents to mix and ignite. It was more a rapid burning than a straightforward explosion. Once the tank collapsed, the two boosters took off on their own. The pressure wave of the collapsing tank would have acted on the two boosters causing them to change course and head off in different directions - which they did. The pressure wave also pushed the Orbiter away from the stack which caused the Orbiter to break up because of the abnormal aerodynamic loads.
The only real explosions which actually occured were the explosions of the hypergolic fuels for the nose mounted thrusters stored in tanks in front of the Orbiter's cockpit.
>> Edited by Eric Mc on Monday 8th August 13:56
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