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Inflatable Spaceship Ready for Test
colonist writes "Nature reports that an inflatable re-entry vehicle could one day carry astronauts or robots to the surface of Earth or Mars. The heat shield (that can withstand 900 C) and the parachute are inflatable. The advantage of inflatable structures is weight: a 130 kg vehicle can carry about 200 kg of cargo back from the space station. The vehicle is made by Return and Rescue Space Systems."
Nature reports that an inflatable re-entry vehicle could one day carry astronauts or robots to the surface of Earth or Mars
Well, hey if they can do this, I'm gonna go ahead and use my water wings to go down Niagra Falls!
...I'm sure that eminent mad scientist from Sluggy Freelance can attest to the efficiency of inflatable technology...
Editor Emeritus and Senior Writer, TeleRead.org
Such inventions are what's needed if those who promote the "human factor" of space exploration are to prevail. Killing a shuttle full of astronauts for purposes of some objective experimentation in space isn't worth it. Providing best-possible-safety and life preservation is what's needed at this point. However, it does sound like this device being used as a "life boat" is serendipitous. Actual efforts along these lines should be more pursued on a project level. If we want to put people in space then we need to assure their safe return....
"All great things are simple & expressed in a single word: freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope." --Churchill
It's my dream to one day, science and god willing, successfully land on the surface of the earth.
The same thing that happens in cartoons - it will make a farting noise and zip back and forth until it stops, at which point it will realize that it is not obeying the law of gravity, say "Yipes" and fall.
A fine is a tax you pay for doing wrong and a tax is a fine you pay for doing all right.
where's the "journal" in journalism?
This article should have also talked about:
- micormeteorites hitting the capsule
- thrust capabilities, if any
- why it is incompatible with the shuttle
- some background on the company (beyond the press release)
Just like the blurbs the other day: We found aliens, they're gray and tall, three eyes and the males have breasts. SETI says so. Then a day later.... JK!, JK! there're are no aliens hidden behind the moon impersonating basketball players... we swear!
There are two kinds of people in the world: Those with good memory.
It's for re-entry, not for general flight in space.
It's the heat shields that are inflatable, and they are armored - e.g. not the same material as your pool floats...
feh. stuff.
The "heat shield" is back! For 20 years, every American launch used an ablative heat shield for reentry. At least someone is starting to use it again, than trying to "fly" back from space using something so fragile that it could be damaged by a piece of foam insulation going several hundred miles per hour. Ditch the shuttle and bring back ELVs
I believe they used parachutes to help land the rovers, so they do work. I think the atmosphere is thin, but with a big enough chute it will help to slow it down.
I was more amazed that it can withstand the heat of re-entry when you consider that the ceramic tiles on the shuttle glow red from the friction of the atmosphere.
Mars' atmosphere is much thinner than Earth's so it wouldn't generate nearly as much heat.
JacquesItch
Look, unless you happen to be a rocket scientist, perhaps you should leave the heavy thinking to the NASA engineers. (I happen to be one, but think of me as a wanna-be myself, as I am transferring over to the Electric space propulsion division soon)
Anyway, I would agree to your comment, that yes, due to Mars gravity, it would be hard(er), well harder 40 YEARS AGO. Technology and efficiency have taken great strides these past 40 years, and we feel confident in our ability to make a rocket that does what its supposed to do.
I can tell you, that Mars manned missions have been fully detailed with many many different mission paths that could be taken. For instance, using Ion propulsion and launching from the International space station or the moon are one of the many possibilities that have already been detailed by many scientists and engineers.
Give NASA a little faith; you don't need to back seat drive them like some little ol' lady.
There's a huge oversupply of hot air right now which should keep prices low.
;-) --
In fact, I think there is a huge storage facility currently for excess hot air in New York at Madison Square Gardin.
--
The problem with quotes on the internet, is that nobody bothers to check their veracity. -- Abraham Lincoln
The space shuttle goes up to about 1500 C as I recall. Designs like this rely on rapid decelleration at high altitude, so they do not get as hot. It basically depends on your exposed surface area to mass ratio. An inflatable object gets a very large surface with very low mass, so it works well.
As an extreme example of this, back in the Apollo days there was a design for an inflatible parachute to allow one person to return to earth wearing nothing more than a Mercury-class space suit!
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Yes, however, there are two factors that make this a far easier technical challenge:
A) An inflatable structure like this has a *much* larger surface area. The goal here is not to "soak up" the heat, but to radiate it away. This is largely surface area limited. This allows it to keep the temperature down.
B) The very large cross-sectional area of an inflatable reentry system allows the craft to begin to slow down from air resistance at higher altitudes. Not only does this mean that the craft doesn't need as much fuel for reentry, but it allows for a steadier velocity reduction profile.
C) Lower temperatures of reentry make *huge* differences. Look at the tensile strength of aluminum alloys at different temperatures, for example, here's some data on Aluminum AA 1100 O (a cheap aluminum):
Temperature (K) Tensile Strength (MPa)
53, 172
183, 103
242, 96
328, 90
386, 69
441, 55
503, 41
566, 28
628, 20
691, 14
Here's data from a good aluminum alloy - AA 7178 T76 T7651:
53, 730
183, 634
242, 606
328, 572
386, 475
441, 214
503, 103
566, 76
628, 58
691, 45
Now, we're not dealing with an aluminum parachute or anything here - aluminum is just something that I happened to have data for offhand. However, you often see tensile strength fall off like this with most materials. Temperature is a *very* important factor.
I'm you from the future! We have to finish our time machine before the Angels of Destruction find the portal!