[FPSPACE] Excellent set of Aleksandr Pantyukhin's photos

[Javier Casado]

 The damage to the pod seems to have been caused at landing, probably by
impact with the soil. However, it shows clear signs of charring that
probably has fragilized the material (by the way, anybody knows what
material is? it seems to be composite, probably carbon fiber with phenolic
resin, I guess, but I don't know; in this case, a severe charring almost
converts the resin to carbon, turning it more or less similar to the leading
edge of the Shuttle wings. And we all know how fragile it is...). Anyway,
this structure seems to be just an aerodynamic fairing for the ACS rockets,
a non-structural part of small thickness, so it is not strange that it
becomes damaged if subjected to impacts.

Another doubt: in photo
http://www.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/content/photogallery/gallery_152/pages/IMG_8954.htm
we
can see also charring on the hatch and surrounding structure. Is this usual
in other missions, or not?

Regards,

Javier Casado
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