[重要] 航天飞机残骸的分布图和NASA的初步调查结果.

NASA: Sudden Rise in Temperature Detected Before Breakup


   

   


Sunday, February 02, 2003

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Moments before space shuttle Columbia broke apart, the craft experienced a sudden and extreme rise in temperature on the fuselage, NASA officials said Sunday.

 



NASA space shuttle program manager Ron Dittemore said the temperature rise -- 60 degrees over five minutes in the mid-fuselage -- was followed by an increased sign of drag that caused the shuttle's computerized flight control system to try to make an adjustment to the flight pattern.



"We are making progress," Dittemore said.

He cautioned that the evidence was still preliminary, but that one of the possibilities was that there been damage or a loss of thermal tiles that protect the shuttle from burning up during re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere.

Dittemore added that the combination of new engineering data and an observer who reported seeing debris from the shuttle while it was still passing over California may create "a path that may lead us to the cause."

The shuttle broke up shortly before landing Saturday, killing all seven astronauts. Most of its debris landed in eastern Texas and Louisiana.

Earlier Sunday, NASA administrator Sean O'Keefe named a former Navy admiral to oversee an independent review of the accident, and said investigators initially would focus on whether a broken-off piece of insulation from the big external fuel tank caused damage to the shuttle during liftoff Jan. 16 that ultimately doomed the flight 16 days later.

"It's one of the areas we're looking at first, early, to make sure that the investigative team is concentrating on that theory," O'Keefe said.

The insulation is believed to have struck a section of the shuttle's left side.

Dittemore said the engineering data showed a temperature rise in the left wheel well of the shuttle about seven minutes before communication was lost with the spacecraft. One minute later, there was an even more significant temperature rise in the middle to left side of the fuselage.

The drag on the left wing began a short while later, causing the shuttle's automated flight system to start to make adjustments.

"There may be some significance to the wheel well. We've got some more detective work," Dittemore said.

The manufacturer of the fuel tank disclosed Sunday that NASA used an older version of the tank, which the space agency began phasing out in 2000. NASA's preflight press information stated the shuttle was using one of the newer super-lightweight fuel tanks.

Harry Wadsworth, a spokesman for Lockheed, the tank maker, said most shuttle launches use the "super-lightweight" tank and the older version is no longer made. Wadsworth said he did not know if there was a difference in how insulation was installed on the two types of tanks.

Wadsworth said the tank used aboard the Columbia mission was manufactured in November 2000 and delivered to NASA the next month. Only one more of the older tanks is left, he said.

O'Keefe emphasized that the space agency was being careful not to lock onto any one theory too soon. He vowed to "leave absolutely no stone unturned."

For a second day, searchers scoured forests and rural areas over 500 square miles of East Texas and western Louisiana for bits of metal, ceramic tile, computer chips and insulation from the shattered spacecraft.

State and federal officials, treating the investigation like a multi-county crime scene, were protecting the debris until it can be catalogued, carefully collected and then trucked to Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana.

The effort to reconstruct what is left of Columbia into a rough outline of the shuttle will be tedious and painstaking.

When a shuttle piece was located this weekend, searchers left it in place until a precise global position satellite reading could be taken. Each shuttle part is numbered; NASA officials say experts hope to trace the falling path of each recovered piece.

The goal is to establish a sequence of how parts were ripped off Columbia as it endured the intense heat and pressure of the high-speed re-entry into the atmosphere.

At least 20 engineers from United Space Alliance, a key NASA contractor for the shuttle program, were dispatched to Barksdale for what is expected to be a round-the-clock investigation.

Other experts, including metallurgists and forensic medicine specialists, are expected to join the investigation. Their focus will be on a microscopic examination of debris and remains that could elicit clues such as how hot the metal became, how it twisted and which parts flew off first.

In addition to NASA's investigation, O'Keefe named an independent panel to be headed by retired Navy admiral Harold W. Gehman Jr., who previously helped investigate the 2000 terrorist attack on the USS Cole.

Gehman's panel will also examine the Columbia wreckage, and come to its own conclusions about what happened. O'Keefe described Gehman as "well-versed in understanding exactly how to look about the forensics in these cases and coming up with the causal effects of what could occur."

Joining Gehman on the commission are four other military officers and two federal aviation safety officials.

Officials used horses and four-wheel-drive vehicles to find and recover the shuttle pieces. Divers were being called in to search the floor of Toledo Bend Reservoir, on the Texas-Louisiana line, for a car-sized piece seen slamming into the water.

Some body parts from the seven-member astronaut crew have been recovered and are being sent to a military morgue in Dover Air Force Base in Delaware.

Columbia came apart 200,000 feet over Texas while it was streaking at more than 12,000 miles an hour toward the Kennedy Space Center. A long vapor trail across the sky marked the rain of debris.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
下图黄点表示目击地址，红点是找到残骸的地点。

I travelled to Prescott, Arizona, driving there
from Orange County, Calif. after my flight from
Baltimore, to observe the Paracelsus appulse nearby.
Bob Thompson invited me to rest at his home north of
Prescott.  I observed the appulse from a site about
15 miles away and arrived at his home 1.5 hours later.
Several minutes later, others there and I had a good
view of Columbia speeding across the northern sky,
glowing brightly with a smoke/con-trail streaming
behind it; it was my first shuttle re-entry sighting.
Bob watched with binoculars, noticing some sparks
coming off as it was in the northwest.  I watched
next with the binoculars for about 30 seconds,
seeing no brightenings or sparks.  We lost it low in
the east in bright twilight and cirrus clouds.
Unfortunately, we did not record the event - sorry
for not doing that now, but I suppose that some others
in Arizona recorded it (we'd be interested if you did).
The passage was spectacular, but we did not know that
it was more so than it should have been, of the
tragedy that was taking place as we watched.  We
watched TV after returning indoors and it was
announced that the landing was expected 14 minutes
later.  After travelling for most of the previous
24 hours, I said I couldn't wait and needed to go
to bed.  About 5 hours later I woke up and learned
the sad news, seeing the Texas videos of what happened
minutes after our sighting.  Rick Baldridge's
account of his observations from Mt. Hamilton, Calif.
are appended after the Paracelsus summary below;
he has posted some images at his Web site.
______________________________________________________

   Below is a list of observations of the appulse of (2239)
Paracelsus to 6.7-mag. SAO 59230 = HIP 31340.  Unfortunately, as
far as I know so far only 4 observations of the appulse were
made, all showing no occultation.  Too bad we didn't have more
coverage for this bright event to know at least where the real path
went; the star was quite easy to find, being visible with
finderscopes and binoculars.  All sites below were in Arizona.

Dist.     U.T. W.Long.  Lat.    h  City/      Observer or
km    h   m     o      o       m  Town       Observatory
18N  12 15.9 112.515 34.667 1576 Prescott     Fulton Wright
16N  12 15.9 112.495 34.619 1600 Prescott GraniteMtnOb BobThompson    
 3N  12 15.9 112.648 34.575 1523 Skull Valley David Dunham            
63S  12 15.8 112.292 33.500  324 Phoenix AZ   David Moore              

Unfortunately, Jim Stamm was not able to get an observation at about
distance 12S because he did not have a finder chart for the event,
and his internet service was down so that he could not access the
Web.  If you have a problem like this in the future and just need
the coordinates of the star to find them on your own star charts or
sky chart software, either get them from my earlier e-mail messages
(I give the coordinates in my general messages about mainly North
American events) or telephone me at 301-474-4722 or cell phone (if
I am trying the event; you might try it first) at 301-526-5590.
Jim says that for future events, he'll print the finder chart well
before the event rather than try to do it during the last few hours.
________________________________________________________________

(two messages from Rick below):
Wrom: MEPYOQKEDOTWFAOBUZXUWLSZLKBRNVWWCUFPEGAUT
To: "AS, YahooGroups" <pastro@yahoogroups.com>, <SeeSat-L@satobs.org>,
Subject: Re: Shuttle Reentry Observations
Date: Sun, 2 Feb 2003 10:01:35 -0800

I have seen, photographed and video taped four Shuttle re-entries over
California, starting with STS-63. A photo of the re-entry of STS-73 is
posted at:
http://photos.yahoo.com/bc/rickb ... p;.src=ph&.
dnm=STS-73+Columbia+Reentry.jpg&.view=t&.done=http%3a//photos.yahoo.com/bc/r
ickbaldridge/lst%3f%26.dir=/Astronomy%2bStuff%26.src=ph%26.view=t
(If you have trouble with this long link, go to
http://photos.yahoo.com/rickbaldridge and click on "Astronomy Stuff" album,
and then the second picture. The Yahoo page was down a few days ago but is
working again.)
Believe me, NONE of them show even the slightest indication of brightenings
in the trail or small pieces coming off.
Yesterday was a bad day for me (and all of us.) I video-taped the re-entry
for Mt. Hamilton, CA and took two photos. Naked-eye, we didn't notice
anything too unusual, but I was spending most of my time looking through the
video camera viewfinder. We thought we had just seen another spectacular
NORMAL re-entry. Only an hour later when I got home did I learn of the
tragedy that occurred minutes after we saw the Shuttle go by.
When I looked at my video, there were very faint but definite pieces coming
off, with the first piece seen on the video at 5:53:45am PST +/- 1 second.
A hand made a time-hack as I always do to obtain timings, and this hack was
synchronized to WWV. As far as I know at this time, I was the furthest west
observer on the re-entry track to get a video.
NASA has been given a copy of the tape. They may want the master of course
to analyze further. I also took two still photos, one through a 16mm lens
that shows the entire visible trace of the Shuttle and BOTH photos show
definite brightenings in the trail that corresponde to brightenings the
video shows. Again, I have NEVER seen this activity before STS-107. The
photos will be scanned today and posted, after I get a copy to NASA.
Bless the families and friends of the Columbia Crew.
Rick Baldridge
Campbell, CA
______________________________________

Wrom: FJMVRESKPNKMBIPBARHDMNNSKVFVWRKJVZCMHVIBG
To: <SeeSat-L@satobs.org>, "AS, YahooGroups" <pastro@yahoogroups.com>
Subject: STS-107 from Mt. Hamilton pictures posted
Date: Sun, 2 Feb 2003 13:51:45 -0800

Hello all.
It's been a very busy 36 hours trying to get data reduced and info to NASA
on the video and pictures I took.
The two still photos I took from Mt. Hamilton (right next to the 40" dome at
Lick Observatory -- coords N37° 20.498' W121° 38.579' Alt 4230feet WGS84
datum) have been scanned (rather poorly by myself, I might add!) and
annotated. I've posted them at:
http://photos.yahoo.com/rickbaldridge
Click on "Astronomy Stuff" album.
I won't speculate at this point -- we've had quite enough of that already.
Let's just say the photos, videos and eyewitness accounts definitely show
that something was amiss while COLUMBIA was over California. With this
being my 4th observed reentry, I have a lot of experience looking over
photos and videos that I've taken and nothing unusual showed on the previous
three.
Funny thing was, several of us who saw STS-107 Saturday morning didn't see
anything we would call really "unusual" using the naked-eye . The only
comments were that the "color" seemed a bit off, perhaps more "orange", but
that could be explained by a variety of causes. Only later when we looked
at the video and developed the slides did we see something funny was going
on. This leads me to believe that the average eye-witness in California may
not have seen something going on when in fact it was. Hooray for video
cameras. (Just ask Rodney King!)

More later.
RICK BALDRIDGE
___________________________________

太可怕了！