Zeev's Turnips Talk Politics (ZTTP)

[webster groves]

<<what if I threw a block of polyurethane foam shipping material onto the glass? nothing would happen!>>

I gave a comparative example, not an exact equivalent.
To answer the above, yes, nothing destructive would happen.
But that isn't the comparison.

The Shuttle tiles are very light weight and brittle. They are more like a ceramic version of styrofoam than the hard ceramic tile most people are familiar with. The insulating foam on the external fuel tank is denser and coated with a hard cement-like surface. In a collision, the Shuttle tile loses.

-wg