Apparantly the Russians are testing a reentry parachute and it makes me wonder,
is exotic high tech heat-shielding really necessary for reentry?
We all know that if the reentry angle is too shallow, the vessel will skip
off the atmosphere, cool down and come in for another skip. These skips could
get shorter and slower until the vessel had slowed enough for a steep dive into
the air.
What if this vessel were a very large disc with low weight/surface area
ratio and it didn't plow into the atmosphere but lightly skipped along the
uppermost air until it slowed down?
Don't forget, that's how the Rogallo Wing got started!
^
//^\\
~~~ near space elevator ~~~~
~~~members.aol.com/beanstalkr/~~~