Space Ship Earth Cracked?

Pumbas Nakasak

Heading for the great escape.
Original Poster
This is a bit too straight on, but the gap looked significantly larger closer.
 

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There is a gasket material between each tile and it appears as if on these particular sections the membrane has deteriorated. This, however, is not a structural issue.
 

Pumbas Nakasak

Heading for the great escape.
Original Poster
IMHO, I felt that the tile/tiles had been "opened" and that there were construction lights visible, an exit route for rubbish. The photograph does not give a true representation of how far outof allignment the tiles were.
 

JML42691

Active Member
There is a gasket material between each tile and it appears as if on these particular sections the membrane has deteriorated. This, however, is not a structural issue.
I'm not sure what you are talking about, but there is no material that has deteriorated between the tiles that would relate to the light shining through. There might me a material between the tiles on the "inner sphere", but the light that we are seeing is not coming from inside the ride, it is coming from the gap between the outer sphere (the tiles that are gray that we see) and not the inner sphere (black and is completely solid like the roof to your house). They probably set lights up as they clean the gutter system as Martin suggested.
 

WDW Monorail

Well-Known Member
It is possible that the tile was removed.
I'm sure that there are other cracks in the tiles. They just haven't been made visible since they were only lit from the fron up until recently. Afterall, the structure is more than 25 years old.

It's not structural damage though.
 

NeedABreak

New Member
Looks more like some light behind the tiles is flaring in your eye and in your camera making it look like a crack. It could just be a work light or something that is shining through and getting us all worked up.
 

mousermerf

Account Suspended
Thought..

If the hatch on the roof can open sort of like a blossoming flower (the 3 smaller triangles fold outward) perhaps this is also the function of that tile?

It'd be easier to get materials and such to that point or perhaps it's the airvent for SSE we've all wondered about.

I'll just say, i think it's meant to open and ben left that way - the other 3-tile pieces should actually be solid.
 

JML42691

Active Member
Couldn't that be a door open, like someone initially pointed out?
To help people out picturing it, the light was visible in more than just the areas that are showing light in mine and Nakasak's pictures, I think that only the source of the light was showingin the pics, the light could be seen around many more tiles next to the ones showing light in the pics, including coming from the cracks between the 3 smaller tiles that make up the large tile on other tiles (it sounds confusing, but just read it a few times).
 

Rob562

Well-Known Member
I'm looking at the pics, and I'm not seeing any tiles out of allignment. I think it's mostly just shadows playing tricks on people. (Look for similar shadows on other nearby tiles for comparison).

When I look at the pic, I see some sort of worklight coming from behind the silver tiles, showing out through the cracks between them. And the two explanations I'd have to explain it were already mentioned here: worklight set up between the inner and outer spheres for gutter cleaning or other maintenance, or that one of the access doors is open and what we see are worklights inside the building itself shining outward.

One of the items on the refurb list are the AC units. It's quite possible that there's no working AC in SSE at the moment, and they're just trying to vent air through it any way they can. Wouldn't you open up any door you could and set up a few fans, especially in Florida in August?

-Rob
 

The Mak

Member
The open door theory is sounding much more solid to me with the pics posted in this thread.

Doing this stuff during park hours is bad show to say the least.
 

gabroccoli

Member
Having installed this maretial in the past(Alucabond). There are 3 seperate pieces that make up one peak on SSE. In between each 1 of those tiles is a caulking material. My guess is that with all the work going on inside and with the Florida sun. Some of this caulking has fallen out. Which is what the light is coming from. Just my 2 cents.
 

JWG

Well-Known Member
Clearly, Disney has hung a glow stick between the outter and inner skin and is sitting back laughing at all of us... :p
 

marni1971

Park History nut
Premium Member
Yep - worklight behind; either between the membrane and tile, or less probable an open inner door with the light inside the building.
 

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