In article ,
Richard Kaszeta wrote:

"Chuck Stewart" writes:
Er... send in the Rover after it's made the coffee?

If this was to be seriously done then the aerogel would be in
pieces that would be lifted out chunk by chunk... each chunk
individually cut to a precise specification different from every
other chunk, and requiring serious overhead in record-keeping,
handling and storage while maintanence was underway.

Not really... Aerogel works quite well as a filler material, either as
loose chunks, or you can actually grind it down to a powder with
virtually no loss in thermal performance (and, interestingly enough,
it's *very* difficult to grind it down to the point where it's density
increases---the granule size is still way larger than the void size,
so the density is unaffected)

I actually work with this stuff, as insulative material for cryogenic
superconductors---while you can actually buy slabs of it and machine
it (on an a standard milling machine, even), it's usually much easier
to break it up and use it as fill if you are just insulating with it,
since it really is quite fragile stuff---And I have a few chunks of it
in the office and I've lost more than a few pieces by people picking
them up and squeezing them, which fractures the chunk into a gazillion
little bits that disappear instantly into the carpet.

As far as using it as RCC filler? I'm not sure it would do much
good---While it's a great insulator, it's really not much of an
improvement over a good vacuum gap with some radiaiton shielding.

And remember the whole point of the original poster - he wanted to fill
the cavity with foam NOT for thermal reasons at all, but to distribute
impact loads on the RCC and structurally reinforce it.

--
Herb Schaltegger, B.S., J.D.
Reformed Aerospace Engineer
"Heisenberg might have been here."
~ Anonymous