Marcus asked:
"Doesn't this mean that SLA-561V would have been a real alternative for ceramic tiles? Are there other properties that would have made it unsuitable?"
SLA-561V as used in Mars Pathfinder and MER was injected into each cell of a composite honeycomb (very labor intensive). There's a derivative called SLA-561S that's a spray-on ablator. They actually coat the Space Shuttle ET with SLA-561S. I do not know if the chunk of foam that killed Columbia was SLA-561S. SLA-561 is cork dust and glass micro-balloons mixed together in resin. The stuff ages and moisture can get into it. If SLA-561S was used on the Space Shuttle orbit vehicle then after every flight, they'd have to scrape it off down to the aluminum and reapply a fresh coat. This is probably more labor intensive than fiddling with the wretched tiles.
Gary
Space/Science » in reply to re: Delicate heatshield?
re: Delicate heatshield?
The whole thread (44 posts)
- Mike Griffin's road map to Mars
- I think rocket technology is about as good as it's going to get
- Other good points
- I agree
- The 30+ years hasn't been a complete waist.
- re: I agree
- Could the shuttles be redesigned?
- I agree