Space Shuttle Tile In Hand

And I mean that literally. I held a Space Shuttle tile in my hand. This was actually back in June at the Tweetup media event at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, but looking back now, I am surprised they didn't have these all over the place at KSC!

These, of course, are what constitute the Thermal Protection System applied to each shuttle orbiter so that their integrity stays sound throughout missions.

Side A and Side B

Many of us will get to see Shuttle Orbiters up close soon in nearby museums, and I'm betting they will have some tiles to handle... so remember these fun facts!

- TPS tiles form the skin that separates the shuttle craft and its crew from temperatures over 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit (1090 Celsius) as it moves through Earth's atmosphere.

- About 70% of the orbiter's exterior must be covered, requiring over 22,000 tiles per craft. No two tiles are alike, and each must be applied by hand.

- The color scheme of the Space Shuttle isn't accidental. It is separated into black and white, as are its tiles, so engineers know what to use and where!

- White areas are covered with "Low-Temperature Re-usable Surface Insulation" or LRSI, designed for temperatures 650 C or 1,200 F or below.

- Black areas are covered with "High-Temperature Re-usable Surface Insulation" or HRSI, designed for temperatures above the the limit of the LRSI and on up to 1275 C and 2300 F! WOW.

Click for Original Size

There are wonderful displays about the TPS at NASA Stennis and NASA Kennedy, and many thousands will continue to be distributed to schools around the USA.

Back at the JPL, I had the honor of meeting Todd Barber, a veteran and/or ongoing guru for some of the most amazing projects NASA has going: Galileo, Stardust, Cassini, EPOXI... and most recently, he has been working on the Mars Exploratino Rover (MER) missions.

It's no exaggeration to say he is not just a propulsion engineer; he is THE propulsion engineer! And here he is, babysitting the Tweeps with a shuttle tile...

NASA Propulsion Engineer Todd Barber

And Todd's right! You really can do this with a Shuttle Tile. Here is a video of someone who put it to the test with a blowtorch and their own hand.

While poking around to research the history of TPS development, I found some fascinating old videos from the 1970s showing the development of the tiles, as well as more recent explanations of abalation and how the tile structure evolved over time with the use of sand... watch the engineers cook up a batch of modern tiles!

NASA Stennis

So much to do and only so much time in the car to do posts! Even with a mobile Wifi hot-spot, one still travels through large stretches of mountains or prairies where signals are non-existent. I was trying to do the best I could along the way, but this visit to John C. Stennis Space Center actually happened a few days back. Yes, this is the place where the Saturn V boosters were tested for the vehicles that would take mankind to the moon.

A lesser known but no less strategic part of NASA that everyone should go visit!

Mississippi

Bay St. Louis, Mississippi is home to the second largest NASA center in the United states, as Stennis is second only to Kennedy in terms of land. 50 years ago in 1961, when the center was founded, available forest land in Mississippi was was what partly made the 13,500-acre NASA test site logical and practical. A surrounding 125,000 acres of sturdy trees and swamps provides a fine sound buffer when they fire up their massive rocket engines!

Another convenient attribute was water access, and I got to see the old canal system spidering all through Stennis where they used to move the Saturn V rockets around on barges, because they were far too big for trucks!

Largest rocket test stand in the world

The amazing scientists and engineers here have just completed 35 years of testing space shuttle engines for LEO missions. High-performance, liquid-fueled engines provide most of the total thrust needed during the shuttles' flights to orbit. All space shuttle main engines had to pass a series of test firings at Stennis prior to being installed in the back of any orbiter.

After taking a bus ride around small portions of the grounds, we went to the onsite museum, called The Stennisphere, near Dr. Wehrner von Braun's old offices. There we were treated to views of space crafts, a shuttle simulator, space suits of famous astronauts, an ISS module, and a fantastic exhibit called "Back To The Future" where they re-created how homes and NASA work spaces looked in the 1960s during the Apollo program.

Miss Lily took Camilla on a thorough
inspection of the Apollo 4 capsule

One of the most interesting plaques I read said that the center has gone through more name changes than any other. When founded in 1961 as a Navy site, it was simply "Test Operations", which changed to "Mississippi Test Facility" in 1965. Not too different. But then in 1974, it was absorbed by NASA and called the "National Space Technology Laboratories". In 1988, it was re-named for US Senator of 41 years, John C. Stennis (D), due to his unwavering support for the national space program, in particular manned spaceflight.

Check out the full photograph album in my Pillownaut Picasa Gallery for all the photos of the day!

Wagons West

Another whirlwind! I wouldn't have it any other way. Marathon road trips should be just that -- marathons, where catching your breath is optional. It has been so amazing to be out on the American highways once again, seeing the terrain of this beautiful land unfold in every direction.

I was quite relieved when there were no Shuttle launch delays, since it felt like limbo to think, "Well, I'll just stay in Florida until the Shuttle launches." Especially when hotel rooms were so hard to come by! But I also have some wonderful friends in many areas of Florida who were willing to host me, whether I darkened their doorsteps for days or weeks! So thank you Bruce, Janet, and Kathy! And Chris, for that epic post-launch party! You were all way more fun than La Quinta ;)

You don't want to know what gasoline cost...

I rested in Florida for a couple days after all the crazy Tweetup activities, then headed back across the south to Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, where I finally visited the NASA Stennis center for the first time. I'll hopefully create that photo album for tomorrow's blog post.

Then it was on to Houston for a few days... work never stops! (In the sense that someone might pay you to walk around Disney parks and call it... "work".) Spent a few days in Austin with my good friends near my old house, then met up with my roadmate Jeff -- and that's when we set the breakneck pace!

Birth Home of President Lyndon Johnson

After a quick stop in Johnson City, Texas to see the giant ranch of the man that space center in Houston is named after, we tore across the prairies, hoping to get Jeff home in time for a product launch his company had accelerated date-wise.

Lots of miles to cover and not much time to do it! We had intended to go to Albuquerque, but instead took a shortcut through the beautiful Gila and Apache National Forests to reach Highway 40. From that stretch, our major detour was to to the Grand Canyon. I have been there many times, though Jeff had never laid eyes on its majesty, so that is always definitely a stop worth making, even when you are in a rush!

Scary Huge hole in the ground, Northern Arizona

After that, we pulled an all-nighter, my first in many years, back across the California border and down into Los Angeles. Passed through and reached San Diego at about 2:30am, almost in awe that we pulled that off! Now I am just resting a bit and catching up on sleep (or rather, sleep is often catching up to ME).

Tomorrow, it's off to San Francisco to rejoin my hometown friends and family! I'll try not to inflict too many photos on them... but I'm buried in them, now. Fair warning ;)