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Re: (meteorobs) Fwd: Meteorite said to start backyard fire



At 21:42 12/06/2000 EST, you wrote:
>But I doubt the X2 or SR-71 had 
>extremely cold interiors to help absorb any generated heat thru the air.

No; but they were running around some 85,000 feet in the air where the
temperature is pretty far below zero. I also remember reading in some
article after the crash that the Concorde skin also gets extremely hot due
to the high speed and thus air friction.

>I don't think the X2's or SR-71 had any insulating tiles similar to the
space 
>shuttle either.

No, not tiles but some other kind of heat resistant material. Come to think
of it, re-entering ICBM nosecones also have heat problems; I think those
things get going something like 25,000 mph.

 I do vaguely recall that during the early  missions of the 
>space shuttle, the recovery crews use to climb on board right away in 
>securing the craft. Temperature didn't seem to be an issue. What happened 
>though was that a ground crew who started working on a shuttle right away 
>were overcome by toxic fumes left over by the engines and what have you.

Dunno about toxic fumes from the engines, which don't operate once the
thing leaves orbit as far as I've heard. In fact, I thought they used the
two little dinky steering engines to leave orbit and the three big uns
aren't used except to push it into final orbit.

>Several people died. Then a policy was adopted to let it "air out" for about 
>an hour before anyone starts working on it. I don't really think skin 
>temperature upon landing has been a real issue. 

It doesn't seem that any of these flying machines could possibly get hot
enough to ignite flammable material on the ground once they land (except
possibly a nose cone). But the point is that even some man-made machines
going through the atmosphere can get awfully darn hot; so why not meteors
of a large-enough size to survive ablation?

SteveH
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