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发帖数: 1 | 1 What kind of aerospace accident killed 7 people in 1 minute?
February 1, 2003, was the day the US space shuttle Columbia returned to
Earth. In the control room of the US Space Center, all the staff were in
high spirits, waiting for the return of the space shuttle. At 9:09 p.m. in
the
picture , the captain of the space shuttle, Rick, began to maneuver the
plane to the correct return position, and then he began to accelerate.
14 minutes later, the 100-ton space shuttle began to descend continuously
with its head up 40°, preparing to enter the earth's atmosphere. During the
landing, the space shuttle was traveling at 27,000 kilometers per hour. The
high-speed landing caused severe friction between the aircraft and the air,
and directly caused the temperature of the wing to soar to 1400 degrees.
But when the plane landed rapidly, the staff in the control room found a
problem. The data returned by the space shuttle showed that all four
temperature detectors on the left side of the space shuttle had
malfunctioned. Since this kind of problem has not occurred before, the staff
did not realize the seriousness of the problem. Instead, they asked the
captain whether the data of the plane was normal. The captain's reply was:
everything is normal.
The picture
but what everyone doesn't know is that the four temperature detectors are
not malfunctioning at all, but have been burned. After a while, more and
more fault detectors appeared on the space shuttle's display screen in the
control room. The red lights of these detectors flashed frequently one after
another, as if the god of death with a scythe was walking. press.
The atmosphere in the command room instantly became tense. They frequently
contacted the space shuttle and tried to inform the captain of the situation
, but after the signal was connected, they just said a few words, and the
communication was directly disconnected. The control room tried to re-
contact, but never heard back. There was no way, the control room had to try
to track the shuttle from the radar map. The staff in the control room
could not imagine what kind of terrible moments the seven astronauts were
going through at that time
.
When the cabin out-of-control alarm sounded, seven astronauts were busy at
their jobs, three were not wearing protective gloves, one was not in the
seat, and one was not wearing a helmet. They tried to get dressed and
returned to their seats for emergency operations, but the plane rolled out
of control.
A few seconds after the picture
, there was a serious loss of pressure in the cabin of the space shuttle.
The enormous pressure made the astronauts start to lack oxygen, some died
directly, and some fell into a coma. But being in a coma doesn't mean he has
life, because soon, he lost his life in a violent impact.
Only after the investigation did people know that the whole process from the
alarm sounding to the death of seven astronauts was only 1 minute. What's
more tragic is that the experiments after the event proved that even if the
astronauts wore protective clothing in a depressurized environment, they
could only guarantee that they would live a little longer, and could not
survive the accident at all.
At 10 p.m. that night, the space shuttle Columbia exploded and disintegrated
over New Mexico.
Picture
Only 16 minutes after the news of the Columbia space shuttle crash came out,
NASA officially launched the accident emergency plan. In less than three
hours, an investigation team full of experts was formed, and they had to
find out. Why did this space accident happen?
The investigation team soon noticed that several unusual high temperature
readings had been returned before the shuttle's temperature probe
malfunctioned. Coincidentally, these high temperature readings all came from
one area: the wheel well, where the plane's left wing stows the landing
gear. With such frequent high temperatures in this place, there is only one
possibility, that is, the high-temperature gas generated by the friction
between the aircraft and the air entered the wheel well when unknown. The
emergence of this possibility made everyone realize that there must be a
crack in the fuselage of this space shuttle, and this crack is an important
part of the crash of the space shuttle.
In order to confirm this
information, investigators must find the flight recorder of the space
shuttle as soon as possible, which is similar to the plane's black box,
which will record all the data of the space shuttle and will provide the
strongest evidence for the cause of the accident. Because the space shuttle
had disintegrated when it fell, it was very difficult to find the relevant
parts. Three weeks later, in an overgrown bush, the investigation team found
the flight recorder.
记录仪的出现，确实证明了调查人员的一个猜想：那就是有高热气体进入了飞机。但有
出入的地方在于，航天飞机的裂口其实不在轮舱附近，而是在飞机左翼的前缘。更重要
的是，这个破洞，是在哥伦比亚号重返大气前就已经存在了。调查组的这个惊人发现，
最震动的，其实是航天中心控制室的人员。因为他们似乎知道，这个破洞的来源。
图片
原来，在哥伦比亚号航天飞机升空之后，就有工作人员从发射录像中看到：飞机起飞后
，从燃料箱外掉落了一个泡沫碎块，并且撞到了飞机左翼的前缘部分。当时，所有人都
知道了这个细节，但没有人会觉得，这一小块泡沫，能带来什么巨大影响。
得知这个重要信息后，调查组决定进行一次试验，来测试泡沫块是否会对飞机造成影响
。为了测试的准确性，调查组找到了覆盖在飞机左翼前缘的强化碳保护隔热片，以及一
块2磅重的泡沫块。紧接着，实验开始了。在五百公里每小时的速度下，泡沫块几乎是
轻而易举地就砸穿了飞机的隔热片，并留下了一个直径为25公分的洞。
这下子，所有人都傻眼了，他们怎么都没有想到，这最不起眼的细节，竟然会是航天事
故发生的最大元凶。
图片
哥伦比亚号航天飞机发生事故，造成7名宇航员罹难后，美国组建的调查团迅速行动，
很快就找出了原因。而找到原因后，他们还再次模拟了航天飞机出事的具体情况。
2003年1月16日，已经进行过27次航空飞行任务的航天飞机，这次将带着7名宇航员，以
及六个国家学生的实验进入太空执行任务。而就在发射之后，航天飞机上的燃料箱外侧
，却突然掉落下了一块公文包大小的泡沫，在高速的升空进程中，这块看似无害的泡沫
块，却径直砸向了飞机左翼的第八块镶板，并给他砸出了一个25公分的大洞。也就是说
，在航天飞机起飞的时刻，事故似乎就已经注定了。
图片
但航天飞机发射前，所有人关注的，都不是这块泡沫块，而是飞机是否能顺利升空。
1986年1月28日，美国的挑战者号航天飞机，就是在发射之后的78秒内发生意外，并在
空中爆炸解体的。在这样的前车之鉴下，所有人关注的，都是飞机能不能顺利发射。所
以，在航天飞机的前8分半钟的时间里，没有人会去关注掉落的泡沫块。更不用说，那
样小规模的泡沫块，如果不是后来回放录像，也根本看不到。
而当问题找出来后，美国宇航局却不愿意承认这个结论。在他们看来，小小的泡沫碎块
是无法影响航天飞机正常飞行的，而宇航局的飞行控制部态度也是一样。但在独立调查
组的压力下，美国宇航局只能继续投入调查，并经过一年的漫长时间，找到了结论：那
就是飞机燃料箱的泡沫材料安装时存在缺陷。总而言之就是，造成哥伦比亚航天飞机空
难发生的罪魁祸首，就是安装泡沫的工序。
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宇航局的工程师奥特认为，泡沫材料本身是没有问题的，问题其实就在于连接泡沫材料
的工序。当时，为了在燃料箱外部敷设泡沫，工程师们采用的都是喷枪工艺，而这种工
艺会在泡沫块和燃料箱中间留下缝隙。如果只是应对空气，那不会造成任何影响，但糟
糕的是，液态氢能够轻松地穿过缝隙。
而航天飞机进入飞行状态后，产生了大量的高热气体，这些气体会导致液态氢受热膨胀
，在这种剧烈的作用下，泡沫材料就会被顶的脱离燃料箱，并最终砸在了急速上升的机
翼上，最终导致了飞机的解体。
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哥伦比亚号航天飞机的失事，对于美国的航天事业来说，是一个非常大的打击。美国之
所以开发航天飞机，就是为了能够将物资运送到国际空间站，保障太空中宇航员的物资
。可1986年和2003年的两次航天飞机爆炸事件，都极大地打击了美国航天局在这方面的
努力，更让美国民众开始反感这种项目。
Even after the accident, American investigators found that the accident of
the space shuttle is probabilistic, generally every 78 times. Of course,
lessons are learned, and later the United States still did not stop the
research and development and launch of the space shuttle. Today, the
solution made by the United States is that once the space shuttle enters
space, NASA satellites will observe its external situation in 360°! |
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