Hi Phil!

On Thu, 3 Apr 2003, Phil Seakins wrote:

>  >        http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99993584
>  >Tests have revealed that an object spotted falling from the space shuttle
>  >Columbia on the second day of its doomed mission was (((apparently)))
>  >a panel of protective heat-resistant tiles.
>  >
>  >The absence of this panel would have provided a point of entry in the
>  >shuttle's left wing for the superhot gases that investigators believe
>  >got inside the craft during re-entry. The plasma melted the shuttle's
>  >aluminium frame and caused the craft to disintegrate, with the loss of
>  >all seven astronauts aboard.
>  >
>  >Radar pictures revealed the object falling from the shuttle as it
>  >performed a pivotal manoeuvre in orbit for a scientific experiment.
>  >Investigators have now taken radar images of various shuttle
>  >components to try to find a match.
>
> I realise this is just a verbatim quote from newscientist.com but I
> wonder at the credibility. Stuff doesn't "fall" in these conditions, if
> something detached from the spacecraft it would simply drift away. Ok,
> maybe just semantics but you'd think a journal with "science" in its
> name would be more precise.

Well, 'simply drift away' isn't all that precise either. :) Nothing up
there moves without an applied force. It says pivotal maneuver which I
interpret to mean rotate on some axis imparting force. So yes, it could
have said 'fall away from...'

But this is 'new science' and they're allowed to leave words out to avoid
confusing the average reader who thinks: 'Fall away? If I drop something
it falls to the ground, it doesn't fall away from anything. Does it? Fall
away from my hand? Too weird, I don't like this site any more' :)

...I just read three other 'latest news' articles there. All
slanted/skewed/distorted in various ways. I wouldn't take *anything* there
at face value.

Have a :) day!

jb

--
jim barchuk
jb@jbarchuk.com

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