3 ms·
Space Shuttle used expendable ablation, thermal barrier materials, and thermal mass of its structure. All of that was only to last for a few minutes of re-entr
by baybal2 5y ago
Space Shuttle used expendable ablation, thermal barrier materials, and thermal mass of its structure.
All of that was only to last for a few minutes of re-entry, not constant flight in such conditions.
- mdorazio 5y agoI'm sorry, but you are either misinformed or we're talking about different things. The HRSI tiles on the shuttle were not ablative, were absolutely reused multiple times, and there's no indication that they couldn't withstand high temperatures for long durations. They were largely inspected and replaced due to impact damage from micrometeorites and ice, not due to thermal ablation. The biggest issues with the shuttle's thermal management approach are that it used an aluminum airframe and the tiles alone wouldn't be suitable for the leading edges of an atmospheric air breathing plane due to the higher dynamic pressures and probably higher heat involved. At mach 4 temps they would be fine. At mach 6+ you'd need something better on the leading edges combined with a temperature-resistant airframe. There's a good paper on the topic here [1]. [1] https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/20080017096/downloads/20080017096.pdf https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/20080017096/downloads/20...