Save the Launch Pad 39 A Bricks !, If These Walls Could Talk, They'd Say 'Save Me!' |
Save the Launch Pad 39 A Bricks !, If These Walls Could Talk, They'd Say 'Save Me!' |
Jun 30 2008, 02:12 AM
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Member Group: Members Posts: 548 Joined: 19-March 05 From: Princeton, NJ, USA Member No.: 212 |
If These Walls Could Talk, They'd Say 'Save Me!'
by Robert Pearlman Discovery Channel Lets not throw away History ! This seems to me to be a very worthy cause. ken link here: http://dsc.discovery.com/space/my-take/nas...t-pearlman.html first few paragraphs: The scoop: The scorched bricks beneath Launch Pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center have witnessed decades of spaceflight history. But after a recent space shuttle launch blew thousands of them from the pad, NASA intends to throw these pieces of history away. If the brick walls beneath Kennedy Space Center's Launch Pad 39A could talk, they might recount the stories of some of NASA's most historic missions over the past 50 years. But part of them may soon be lost forever. Thirty-nine years ago this July, a Saturn V rocket blasted off from Pad 39A, sending a crew of three men on their way toward the first manned lunar landing. The powerful exhaust from the 363-foot booster had to be tamed or else risk destroying the pad. So in 1965, when NASA engineers designed 39A, they built the aptly titled "flame trench" -- a 500-foot-long-by-60-foot-wide-by-four-story-deep tunnel to safely deflect the searing flames and smoke away from launch vehicle and the pad. ..... |
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Jun 30 2008, 02:22 AM
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Member Group: Members Posts: 903 Joined: 30-January 05 Member No.: 162 |
Must be some pretty sturdy bricks.
I would imagine most ordinary bricks being blasted 1/2 a mile at Mach 2 would be pulverized. NASA footage showed many chunks and apparently intact ones too. Not sure what would have been worse about standing there. The 4000 degree searing blast, or getting clocked in the face with a brick. (Note: I have always been fascinated with material science, and these bricks are interesting. Think of the HCl damage from the SRBs these things have been thru in addition to the shockwaves!) |
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Jun 30 2008, 03:35 AM
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Member Group: Members Posts: 191 Joined: 20-November 06 From: Saint Louis Member No.: 1376 |
I've seen this brought up elsewhere and it was shot down pretty quickly. Apparently they are full of/coated with all kinds of stuff that you wouldn't want to be next to. I've heard talk of asbestos too, though I'm not sure that's accurate.
-------------------- - Matt
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Jun 30 2008, 11:16 AM
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Merciless Robot Group: Admin Posts: 8783 Joined: 8-December 05 From: Los Angeles Member No.: 602 |
If they contain hazmat, then it's game over for them for sure. Federal agencies don't play around even a little with that stuff these days...too much potential legal liability.
-------------------- A few will take this knowledge and use this power of a dream realized as a force for change, an impetus for further discovery to make less ancient dreams real.
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Jun 30 2008, 01:09 PM
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#5
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Founder Group: Chairman Posts: 14432 Joined: 8-February 04 Member No.: 1 |
Quite - the sub-headline should be " If these walls could talk, they'd say 'Aluminum Perchlorate' "
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Jun 30 2008, 01:10 PM
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#6
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 3648 Joined: 1-October 05 From: Croatia Member No.: 523 |
With what those walls went through, somehow I imagine a better title would have been "If These Walls Could Scream..."
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