Nit picking

Space/Science » in reply to StuntShipOne: The GeeBee Of Outer Space by Jeff Bell

Nit picking

Gary — 7/21/2004 5:29:51 AM (archived)

Jeff Bell said:

>Rutan's firm Scaled Composites made the outer shell of the
>DC-X military stunt rocket, which actually set itself on fire
>during a fast landing from the backwash from the rocket
>exhaust plumes. An aluminum skin would never have
>noticed this heat, which is far less than that of a reentry.

Jeff Bell has obviously never tried to do any aluminum welding with an acetylene torch. Aluminum has a low melting point and gives no warning before it collapses into liquid (steel glows red and sparkles before it melts).

One could stretch the truth and argue that carbon-phenolic is a composite material. Carbon-phenolic is the best thermal protection material known (NASA used it for the Galileo Probe).

Bell is right in comparing SpaceShipOne to the GeeBee. Like the GeeBee, SpaceShipOne is good (dangerous) fun. Unfortunately SpaceShipOne is not going to get us into LEO on the cheap.

Gary

The whole thread (35 posts)

StuntShipOne: The GeeBee Of Outer Space by Jeff Bell - Mark Eby - 7/21/2004 3:05:34 AM
- Fisking the article - Larry J - 7/21/2004 3:17:21 PM
  - Educational, thanks Larry (n/t) - McFly - 7/22/2004 1:39:17 PM
  - Great post. You might want to pass it on to SpaceDaily. (n/t) - Tom Brosz - 7/21/2004 10:13:34 PM
  - re: Fisking the fisking - Nathan Koren - 7/21/2004 4:20:35 PM
    - Thanks for the info on SpaceX - Larry J - 7/21/2004 4:55:45 PM
      - re: Thanks for the info on SpaceX - Nathan Koren - 7/21/2004 5:42:37 PM
        
        I did a little checking on the SpaceX website - Larry J - 7/22/2004 6:16:18 PM
        
        All the market will bear... - Tom Brosz - 7/23/2004 3:03:37 AM
        
        re: All the market will bear... - Nathan Koren - 7/23/2004 3:59:21 PM
        
        To be fair... - Tom Brosz - 7/24/2004 4:36:27 AM
        
        re: I did a little checking on the SpaceX website - Nathan Koren - 7/23/2004 1:39:42 AM
        
        But at least it's now within sight. - Lee - 7/21/2004 11:45:20 PM
        
        Absolutely - Nathan Koren - 7/22/2004 2:09:31 AM
- Nit picking - Gary - 7/21/2004 5:29:51 AM
- re: StuntShipOne: The GeeBee Of Outer Space by Jeff Bell - Nathan Koren - 7/21/2004 4:39:59 AM
- re: StuntShipOne - Tom Brosz - 7/21/2004 3:43:04 AM
  - re: Energy limitations for private spaceflight - M - 7/21/2004 4:23:01 AM
    - Codswallop! - Nick Hoffman - 7/21/2004 7:07:03 AM
      - Well put! - dtb - 7/22/2004 1:06:39 AM
      - Well put! - dtb - 7/22/2004 1:06:30 AM
      - re: Energy Limited - N - 7/21/2004 8:52:50 AM
        
        Shuttle Mass - Adam - 7/24/2004 10:28:07 PM
        
        re: Correction - O - 7/21/2004 9:01:30 AM
        
        re: Correction - Nick Hoffman - 7/21/2004 9:52:08 AM
        
        Then you obviously agree that private space industry will be rather limited in scale (n/t) - P - 7/21/2004 10:26:46 AM
        
        Refer to my post below entitled "The Limits of Deductive Reasoning" - Q - 7/21/2004 11:50:49 AM
        
        A future different from what we expected - R - 7/21/2004 12:31:45 PM
        
        Consistent handles, please. - Tom Brosz - 7/21/2004 10:11:30 PM
        
        Don't worry Tom... - Nick Hoffman - 7/22/2004 4:39:50 AM
        
        re: Things change (n/t) - S - 7/21/2004 11:07:47 PM
        
        re: Things become confusing (n/t) - SteveS - 7/23/2004 1:55:18 PM
    - re:Oh come on! - Nathan Koren - 7/21/2004 4:52:18 AM
      - *Yeesh!* What crawled up *my* shorts tonight? - Nathan Koren - 7/21/2004 4:54:38 AM
        
        Hopefully, no valuable documents. ;) (n/t) - Tom Brosz - 7/21/2004 8:17:39 AM

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