[AR] Re: SpaceX failure update
- From: "John Dom" <johndom@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: <arocket@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 18 Oct 2016 00:43:16 +0200
Henry Spencer wrote on 171016
Like glass or quartzglass siliconoxide which was (or is) used next to
ablative layers inside ICBM noses.
In other words, silica -- which is what the shuttle tiles are made of.
That's the sort of fragile, structurally-useless material you get when you
try to use silica by itself.
Embed silica fibers in a matrix of something else and you can have a
useful structural material, yes, but what do you use as a matrix? All the
common matrix materials -- including, yes, the ones used in ablators -- are
flammable organic resins. Some of them don't burn easily, but they will all
burn, so they're irrelevant to the impossible pipe dream of trying to use
only non-flammable materials in reentry vehicles.
AKA tektites:
http://www.tektites.co.uk/Missiles.html
jd
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