[FPSPACE] Excellent set of Aleksandr Pantyukhin's photos

[Jim Oberg]

We can hope that the official report will have reliable conclusions --
and that we will be able to learn about them!!


  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Javier Casado 
  To: fpspace at friends-partners.org 
  Sent: Friday, June 06, 2008 2:38 AM
  Subject: Re: [FPSPACE] Excellent set of Aleksandr Pantyukhin's photos


  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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