4 ms·
Thanks, awe inspiring video! >When you compress a gas it heats up, and eventually the compression is so violent that that air heats up enough to start vaporizi
by drewmol 8y ago
Thanks, awe inspiring video!
>When you compress a gas it heats up, and eventually the compression is so violent that that air heats up enough to start vaporizing the booster.
I don't think this is an accurate description of what happens on re-entry.
- Pfhreak 8y agoMost of the heat does indeed come from compressing the air in front of the booster. The inverse of what happens when you use a compressed air can for a while and it gets very, very cold. I don't know about vaporizing the booster though. It sure gets hot.
- baq 8y agoIt’s pushing 10 gs or so. It is burning up.
- monochromatic 8y agoIt actually is. People call it friction, but that’s not right. It’s adiabatic compression heating.
- ThenAsNow 8y ago> It’s adiabatic compression heating. If we're being pedantic (and I don't mean that pejoratively), this would have been more correct if you'd left out "adiabatic". If gasdynamic compression heating is being induced by a fast-moving body in the open atmosphere, it's not strictly adiabatic.
- Treblemaker 8y agoIs your disagreement with characterizing the air compression as "violent", or do you have a different understanding of what causes the heating during re-entry?