Atmospheric Re-Entry Vehicle Mechanics
Ballistic reentry vehicles, capsules and planetary probes are the fastest human designed objects to fly through planet’s atmospheres. With velocities over Mach 20, RV’s have to dissipate a huge kinetic energy, and environment may exceed 100 g’s at center of mass, 100 bars stagnation pressure and 100 MW/m² on nosetip. Design of thermal protection system is a formidable material engineering problem....
Ballistic reentry vehicles, capsules and planetary probes are the fastest human designed objects to fly through planet’s atmospheres. With velocities over Mach 20, RV’s have to dissipate a huge kinetic energy, and environment may exceed 100 g’s at center of mass, 100 bars stagnation pressure and 100 MW/m² on nosetip. Design of thermal protection system is a formidable material engineering problem....
