This center is gathering information and delving into what happens to human-made objects and the materials they comprise as they slice through Earth's thin to thick atmosphere.įor example, CORDS research teams focus on several key questions: In 1997, the organization created a Center for Orbital and Re-entry Debris Studies, or CORDS. has conducted studies on the breakup and re-entry of spacecraft for more than 35 years. I’ll be looking at what peak temperatures were seen, how much heating the debris saw and how that jibes with what other people predict." "Once they’ve got that, the thermal history of the debris can be predicted. Based on the mass of those articles and their geometry, our people will do a trajectory analysis to try and figure out exactly where it was when it broke free," Steckel said. "All the pieces that we have, we know where they were found. That effort is meant to determine the paths taken by the components after they separated from Columbia - how they "flew" after they broke off and what the environment they experienced was like. It’s pretty massive," he added.Ī trajectory prediction analysis of the debris is also being done. "One of these that we got weighs 360 pounds. "So using this material from Columbia, we can hopefully predict what that tank is going to do, and whether it’s a danger … hitting a populated area," Steckel said.Īerospace will have the debris for one year, Steckel said, to perform analyses to estimate maximum temperatures during re-entry based upon the geometry and mass of the recovered composite. Air Force upper stage carrying a large composite tank were launched, later to re-enter, "chances are it’s not going to entirely burn up." He is leading the analysis of the Columbia hardware in the labs.įor instance, Steckel said that if a U.S. This would be in the category of external surface material.Ī few articles from one of the experiments carried on Columbia’s last flight are still to come, said Gary Steckel, senior scientist of The Aerospace Corp.’s Space Materials Laboratory. A section from the payload bay door is included in the delivery to The Aerospace Corp. The shuttle tanks were initially internal to Columbia at various locations within the spacecraft, but separated during shuttle’s breakup. In addition, main propulsion system helium tanks, a reaction control system helium tank and a power reactant storage distribution system tank are being studied. are studying graphite/epoxy honeycomb skins from Columbia’s orbital maneuvering system pod, once located at the aft end of the space plane. Re-entry and materials experts at The Aerospace Corp. Those investigations should help calibrate analytical models for predicting the re-entry behavior of composites - material used on the space shuttle fleet and elsewhere in the space business. will be subjecting the Columbia debris to various tests.
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