Aviation Week Reports “Carbon Snakes” Offer Shuttle Repair Option

NEW YORK, NY — Aviation Week & Space Technology reports in its March 3 issue that a hurry-up initiative at NASA to devise a way astronauts could repair the space shuttle’s reentry tiles in space, before the shuttle is allowed to resume flights, has led to one bizarre concept that would use the same type chemicals that are in “snake fireworks” sold commercially for the 4th of July.

The shuttle repair material being examined is based on chemicals that when lit by a match, grow into snake-like shapes made of carbon foam, AW&ST said. As anyone who has ever lit one of these fireworks knows, the carbon foam gives off large amounts of soot and smoke—a characteristic that illustrates its ability to rapidly expel heat.

The material that forms the snake is called an “intumescent”. AW&ST reported that engineers at Boeing in Huntington Beach, Calf., and Refrac Systems, an aerospace materials company in Chandler, Ariz., are beginning to test the material to see if they can come up with a formulation that could be loaded into high-tech caulk guns that would be carried in the shuttle or pre-positioned on the International Space Station.

If a hole or crack is discovered in a shuttle wing or belly tile, a space-walking astronaut could use a caulk gun loaded with the material to seal the damaged area, Norman Hubele of Refrac Systems told the magazine. Boeing engineers told AW&ST that high temperature tests of the material have been scheduled early this month at the Johnson Space Center.

Ironically, the Boeing and Refrac Systems engineers began informally discussing the chemistry involved in the concept in late January, as Columbia was still safely in orbit. AW&ST reports they held those discussions at an American Ceramic Society meeting in Cocoa Beach, FL, adjacent to the Kennedy Space Center where Columbia was to land days later.

The magazine also reports that early in Columbia’s flight when there still might have been time to devise a rescue plan, managers seriously considered asking astronauts Dave Brown and Mike Anderson to perform a spacewalk to peer over the side of the payload bay to see if the left wing was damaged. But, just like the idea to have military telescopes image the shuttle, the spacewalk inspection was dropped because of doubts the astronauts would see anything.

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