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Could Ancient Pottery Improve Spacecraft Tiles?

Posted by samzenpus on from the blast-from-the-past dept.

astroengine writes "Earlier this year, the National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded nearly $500,000 to scientists from the Getty Conservation Institute, Stanford's National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC) and the Aerospace Corporation to study the chemical and physical properties of ancient Attic pottery. Why? Well, the project will improve our understanding of iron-spinel chemistry, which is critical to the advanced ceramics used for thermal protection in aerospace applications, such as in the heat shield tiles used by spacecraft during atmospheric reentry."

3 of 57 comments (clear)

  1. Finally... by vikingpower · · Score: 5, Interesting

    ... a good reason to tell those kids in high school there IS good reason to occupy their minds with ( Latin and ) Greek antiquity. Which is not to be confounded, as the OP demonstrates, with antiquities at the fair.

    --
    Religous speak to God. Insane are spoken to by God. When all shut up, one can finally hear Shostakovich in peace
    1. Re:Finally... by vlm · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Either that, or "those who forget the past are condemned to repeat it." Which is advice that I wish that half of our first-world countries' leaders would listen to. Fall of the Roman Empire, anyone?

      The bad news is they've done so, and it's all good for them, so they're not changing course.

      Note that what the general public would call the "decline" was actually for the endless bureaucrat drones their "peak", so from their point of view, let the good times roll! Yes they all got killed in the end, only AFTER the general public bore the brunt, so again they come out ahead. There is really not much downside for them, is there?

      The folks who need to listen are the general public, but bread and circuses numb them.

      --
      "Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
  2. Could Ancient Pottery Improve Spacecraft Tiles? by rossdee · · Score: 5, Funny

    Sure, but you'll probably need Daniel Jackson to translate the writing, and Samantha Carter to work out the technical details...