[AR] Re: SpaceX
- From: Henry Spencer <hspencer@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: Arocket List <arocket@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 1 Sep 2016 15:40:55 -0400 (EDT)
On Thu, 1 Sep 2016, George William Herbert wrote:
Most medical and industrial facilities throw mass (dewars, frost) at the
insulation problem. Rockets may need insulation. But most insulating
materials are organic foams (not all).
It is unusual to insulate rocket LOX tanks at all; the mass is significant
and the benefits usually small. Even the shuttle-ET LOX tank was going to
be mostly uninsulated until they noticed the hazard to the orbiter tiles.
I don't think I've ever seen mention of Falcon 9 having insulated tanks...
Also, foam cryo insulation is invariably *closed-cell* foam, so in the
absence of cracks, there's no way that LOX or liquid air can just soak
into it.
Henry
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