It seems that the NASA line is that even if they had been aware of the problem there was nothing to be done. One question I have is that whether reducing the weight of the shuttle could have improved the odds.
Could a reduced weight have helped by:-
- Changing the heat 'map' on the tiles due to an altered angle of attack?
- Reducing the maximum temperatures to be encountered?
- Increase manouverabilty (vary pitch to vary heating, counter/mitigate left yaw/roll ) of the vehicle?
- Less stress as on ailerons/elevators etc?
- Reducing the speed at which (no gear?) that the astronauts would have had to bail out?
Maybe the answer is that thay had no means to do this. Could they have:-
- Dumped the module in the cargo bay?
- Dumped at much as possible through an (fitted?) airlock?
- Dumped air, used (below safe min) fuel