Heat shield tiles

Hi Paul and others,
It never ceases to amaze me to see the many different ways our lives intertwine.

About ten years ago, I was called to seed a mountainside that had been mined for Kyanite. This mineral is used in the manufacture of the Space Shuttle heat shielding tiles! So I flew up there and we augered tons of seeds into the airplane (AT502) all day long to re-seed the badly eroding mountainside.

The small mountain is called Graves Mountain, near Lincolnton, Ga. and was nearly obliterated by the mining.

Now I visit a site with Nasa's own Paul Dye who flies an RV. Amazing,
 
Great, now NASA is going to get blamed for strip-ming a mountain Pierre! ;) :eek:

The space program actually has created more jobs than we can count over the years....one thing I love is when someone proclaims "How come we are spending all that money in space??!!" I love it because of my answer...."I can tell you without reservation that we have never spent one single dime in space.....every penny of NASA's budget has been spent right here on earth - developing technology, making jobs, and raising our standard of living."

The inspiration of exploration is just a bonus....

Gott go to bed soon and then go in tonight to do another vehicle inspection...

Paul
 
Pierre, I didn't know there were any mountains in that part of Georgia. I bet the grass you planted looks better than what was there before!!! :D
Don
(Sorry, Paul, I just had to dive in!) :cool:
P.S. The story I like is the one about a Senator complaining about funding NASA was requesting to place more weather satellites in orbit. He said he could just go home and watch The Weather Channel and get better information from his TV than any satellite could provide!!! :eek:
 
Yes

Don,
The mountain was a perfect semicircle jutting up from the earth, like half a ball, almost perfectly round and could be seen from thirty miles away on a good day.

The agronomists designed a blend of seven different seeds, in large part for wildlife feed, and I applied around 250 lbs per acre IIRC, and yes, it was a lot greener than before-kinda like the Alaska pipeline reseeding project turned out, also seeded by air.
Regards,
 
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