Best Tech Heat Shield

The Space Shuttle heat shield has changed over time. Basically they
have replaced tiles with things requiring less maintence on the less
critical (cooler) areas. However, the hottest areas remain tiles.

Suppose someone were to make a shuttle-like craft today. What would
they use for a heat shield on the hottest areas. Would they use more
reinforced carbon-carbon in the construction? Are there any better
things than the current
tile system?

-Curious
-Marcela Duong

On 22 Feb 2007 20:43:06 -0800, wrote:

The Space Shuttle heat shield has changed over time. Basically they
have replaced tiles with things requiring less maintence on the less
critical (cooler) areas. However, the hottest areas remain tiles.

Suppose someone were to make a shuttle-like craft today. What would
they use for a heat shield on the hottest areas. Would they use more
reinforced carbon-carbon in the construction? Are there any better
things than the current
tile system?

-Curious
-Marcela Duong

Actually, heat shields are no longer necessary. I was involved with
an experiment using the carbon tethered space elevator last November.

We were able to raise a 20 pound payload into low earth orbit using
the space elevator platform just off the coast of Brazil. The tether
was raised by helium baloons and then small rockets to lower orbit.
I'd tell more but some of it was classified for military reasons.

wrote in message
ps.com...
The Space Shuttle heat shield has changed over time. Basically they
have replaced tiles with things requiring less maintence on the less
critical (cooler) areas. However, the hottest areas remain tiles.

Suppose someone were to make a shuttle-like craft today. What would
they use for a heat shield on the hottest areas. Would they use more
reinforced carbon-carbon in the construction? Are there any better
things than the current
tile system?

-Curious
-Marcela Duong


I worked on the Orbital Space Plane at NASA before it was cancelled.
Shuttle technology is still a viable heat shield. Lockheed was looking into
a higher lift over drag space craft that had a thinner wing. The thinner
wings leading edge gets hotter than a shuttle (reentry heat is a strong
function of the radius of curvature -- pointier objects are hotter). For
this they were looking into a new ceramic that is in early development. The
problems is this stuff is REALLY soft and is easily damaged. After
Columbia, we pretty much decided a heat shield that is easily damaged is not
a good idea. This was a major driver to go back to capsules. You can hit
an ablative heat shield with a baseball bat and it will not cause damage.
Shuttle tiles and RCC are fragile.

Danny Deger

"Deke" wrote in message
...
snip
Actually, heat shields are no longer necessary. I was involved with
an experiment using the carbon tethered space elevator last November.

We were able to raise a 20 pound payload into low earth orbit using
the space elevator platform just off the coast of Brazil. The tether
was raised by helium baloons and then small rockets to lower orbit.
I'd tell more but some of it was classified for military reasons.


Is the classified part where you swooped down in your X-Wing, threw a rope
around the payload, and zoomed back into orbit?