Experts said protrusions on the otherwise smooth belly of the shuttle could disturb the air flow during re-entry, causing turbulence that raises temperatures on heatshield tiles downstream.
But a cynic might further conclude that to the extent that upriver dams smooth a flow's seasonal extremes, China's upriver projects actually make ones in downstream countries more feasible, too.
Two rival metering models used in large commercial buildings to track the flow of electricity as it moves through a building shows the difference between upstream and downstream applications in the smart-grid space.