The story so far:Hanuman, Sampati and Jatayu listen to Nala’s lecture on magnetism
Hanuman: Now, back to Sampati. What happened to your wings.? How did they burn?
Sampati: Has Nala ever spoken to you about the death of Kalpana Chawla, the Indian astronaut?
Hanuman: Yes, but not in detail. He just told me that, in the future, a space shuttle named Columbia would disintegrate with seven astronauts on-board, one of whom was Kalpana Chawla.
Sampati: Correct.
Hanuman: Wasn’t it due to a structural failure? What exactly happened?
Sampati: You are rightbut do you know what got damaged?
Hanuman: No.
Sampati: The heat shield. Just rub your hands fast.
Hanuman does so.
Sampati: As fast as you can. Faster.
Hanuman rubs at high speed and soon stops.
Hanuman: It’s too hot…
Sampati: In modern science, this is called friction. When molecules interact with each other, they produce heat energy. When the interaction is at a great speed, the temperature can even go upto 3,000° F. There is additional compression of air, pressure builds up, which adds more heat as well.
Hanuman: Oh, so the heat shield got damaged in the space shuttle?
Sampati: The Columbia shuttle had a shield, which got damaged. A body like mine or any other birds’ is much lighter and non-heat resistant. If I hadn’t made my wings the heat shield for Jatayu, who was falling at a high speed, I would have lost him. I’d rather lose my wings than my brother.
A tearful Jatayu hugs Sampati.
Hanuman: Wings turned into re-entry heat shield! Will I ever find someone to love me so much?
Nala: You will, Hanuman.
Hanuman: Who is that,?
Nala: Wait for the future to unfold, Hanuman.
The author is the founder and CEO of Vaayusastra Aerospace, an IIT-Madras incubated ed-tech startup that offers Air Science workshops for children between five and 14 years.
