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Could 'Fire Paste' Replace Shuttle Tiles?
pipingguy writes "Troy Hurtubise, of bear suit fame, claims to have invented a physics-defying substance called fire paste. "I could coat the belly of the NASA space shuttle with fire paste for $25,000 (US), instead of the $60 million it costs for them to put tiles on it," Hurtubise said. "It can stand up to the heat of re-entry to the earth's atmosphere, and then they can simply wash it off.""
Seems to me that the best part of this would be that it might be able to be applied *in space* should something happen during launch!
10+ years ago I recall hearing about a guy who created a very similar sounding stuff I think he called it 'Starlight'. I recall a demo where he had an starlight coated egg resisting a blowtorch I think he was a hairdresser and had made it out of common hairdressing equipment/chemicals
I recall he refused to patent it (cos big buisness would steal it) and apparently refused some very lucrative deals.
Hmm google is my friend I have some references they guy was called Maurice Ward it was called starlight here are some references:- ref1 ref2
Actually, I made enough simplifications that there could be something exponential lurking in a more detailed analysis. My model works for either a good conductor that remains isothermal as it cools, or for a perfectly bad conductor being heated from the outside (it radiates all the energy away from its surface without any of it working its way inside). Also implied was a near vacuum and heat sinks cold enough compared to the temperature of the object that they are essentially zero. As such, it works best for insulating tiles on the Shuttle during the period of reentry when there is still little atmosphere (space = 2.7 K, Earth ~ 300 K, tiles up to 2700 K). In case you care, there is a much more sophisticated analysis of shuttle skin here.
"I'm so moist I'm sticking to the leather." -Kermit the Frog on The Late Late Show