From: damon16ONE@comcast.net   
      
   Owen Zurhellen  wrote in   
   news:BEF9FCB1.36A4%tentothefourth@earthlink.net:   
      
   >     Dear all:  As you may have heard, one of the   
   >     difficulties in using the   
   > Space Shuttle's External Tank as an orbiting space station   
   > or factory (rather than allowing it simply to reenter to   
   > destruction) has been thought to be the orange outer   
   > coating that insulates the cryogenic propellants, which   
   > would slowly disintegrate (from micrometeors and the   
   > exosphere's monatomic oxygen) and choke the vicinity with   
   > fine debris. The outer coating of the ET has now been   
   > modified (I'm not sure exactly how) to avoid the problem   
   > that doomed COLUMBIA - relatively large chunks of the   
   > coating falling off during ascent and striking the   
   > orbiter's vulnerable tiles. Would this recent modification   
   > help the on-orbit disintegration problem in any way?   
      
   I'm not aware of anything that alters the bulk properties   
   of the insulation, just the manner in which is it applied   
   in certain areas.   
      
   It's otherwise irrelevant because the tank will never, ever   
   be used on-orbit for anything.   
      
   --Damon   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)