Amusing article on the launch

[Beth Sweet]

Just thought that you would all enjoy this fasinating article...

Bird Droppings Survive Space Launch
Associated Press

Houston-NASA's rocket scientists have a new appreciation for the out-of-this-world strength of bird droppings.

The orbiting space shuttle Discovery is sporting some whitish splotches on its black right-wing edge that National Aeronautics and Space Admininstration officials say appear to be bird excrement, perhaps from the gulls that are common at Cape Canaveral, Fla.

Shuttle lead flight director Tony Ceccacci said he saw the same splotches on the identical part of the shuttle about three weeks ago when Discovery was on the launch pad and laughed when pictures beamed back from space Wednesday showed they still were there.

That means these bird droppings withstood regular Florida thunderstorms, a mighty Fourth of July launch during which 300,000 gallons of water is sprayed at the shuttle's main engines and a burst upward through Earth's atmostphere. During that luanch, Discovery went from zero to 17,500 mph in just less than nine minutes.

Still the bird droppings remained in place. Mostly.

Some of the droppings might have shaken off during liftoff, Ceccacci guessed. He figures the rest will burn up during landing, when the shuttle's edges get as hot as 3,000 degrees.

[KenWittlief]

Ive always wondered, when they build probes to send to Mars and other planets, and they build them in sterile white rooms so they will be free of all contamination

how do we know they do not pick up things on the way up through the atmosphere? How do we know we have not already unintentionally carried life on our probes to other planets?

The probes that are sent to look for traces of life?

I cant drive my car more than 2 miles in the summer without hitting insects on the windshield and front grill (esp after I wash it). How can you blast a rocket through 60 miles of atmosphere without hitting something on the way up?

[Richard Wallace]

I'm certainly no expert, but it seems to me that planets with atmospheres are fairly well protected against life-material contaminants on the outer surfaces of objects that enter. Those surfaces are going to get very hot.

But it does surprise me to read that bird droppings on the orbiter's surface have survived a trip to the space station. Maybe someone should be studying the application of similar materials as protective coatings?

[Gabe]

Yesterday their was an article on another piece of foam insulation that fell off from the shuttle (liquid oxygen connection) after NASA spends so much time trying to prevent that from happening. Yet bird droppings stay on without a problem? We may be on to something here...

[KenWittlief]

Originally Posted by Gabe

Yesterday their was an article on another piece of foam insulation that fell off from the shuttle (liquid oxygen connection) after NASA spends so much time trying to prevent that from happening. Yet bird droppings stay on without a problem? We may be on to something here...

I think you are on to something!

Step one: Feed foam insulation to Seagulls...

[TimCraig]

Originally Posted by KenWittlief

I cant drive my car more than 2 miles in the summer without hitting insects on the windshield and front grill (esp after I wash it). How can you blast a rocket through 60 miles of atmosphere without hitting something on the way up?

That reminds me of what one of my aero professors told us about the trouble the Germans went through to keep the wings of their planes clean and insect free during WWII. To keept the wings as efficient as possible, they'd polish and wax them on the ground, put a paper sleeve around the wing, and have a resistance wire on the leading edge to burn it free when they'd reached the "bug free" altitude. However, we developed the laminar flow airfoil, put it on the P-51, and the rest is history.

[KenWittlief]

Originally Posted by Richard

I'm certainly no expert, but it seems to me that planets with atmospheres are fairly well protected against life-material contaminants on the outer surfaces of objects that enter. Those surfaces are going to get very hot.

well yeah, but from launch time at earth to landing time on the other planet its often 1 or 2 years - sometimes much longer. Anything that contaminated the probe during launch has a long time to find its way inside the probe, where it will be protected, like the electronics and parachutes are protected.