Space/Science — HabitableZone

Space/Science » in reply to There's no way you'll get an L/D of 50

re: I believe it does get an L/D of 50, when forced to go hypersonic speed

But only for an instant before it gets torn apart. It would be much lower at lower speed. It only has to exceed 1.0 slightly to gain altitude. The variation of total-to-static pressure ratio on Reynolds number is not linear, so although they would gain altitude at first, I don't know if they would gain sufficient altitude. Only a complicated computer program could extrapolate adequately. Hence I have no reason to expect them to succeed OR fail. I'd rather wait and see.

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