Questions tagged [thermal]
How heat affects spacecraft and space missions, or materials and methods to deal with heat.
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Does increased thermal emissivity decrease the effectiveness of a solar sail?
I am aware that increased emissivity in solar sails aids with heat reduction, however, I have done some research and found that the emissivity decreases the trajectory of the solar sail through the ...
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Simulating the thermal heating of a nose cone exiting an atmosphere
I have a simulation that describes a vehicle traveling at very high speeds (near or even above orbital) up out of the atmosphere and into space. I'd like to chart the rate of heating ($\dot{q}_{conv}$ ...
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How many heat shield tiles are installed on Starship and what is their total volume roughly?
If paired with tile density information, this total volume information would be useful for estimating how much more mass Starship could lift in a non-reusable configuration. If also paired with heat ...
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Has any vehicle prior to Starship's IFT3 "taken a selfie" during reentry?
I'm curious about images (or videos) that a) Include both a portion of the vehicle and its re-entry plasma wake, and b) That were taken at near-orbital (high-hypersonic) velocities or greater.
I ...
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What is the white felt-like material between the heat shield tiles and stainless steel skin of Starship likely to be?
I suspect that the white padding material between the tile and the stainless steel skin might be [Nomex Felt][1], but I don't really know. Nomex was used on the Space Shuttle.
Flame-Resistant Felt - ...
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Why are tiles used instead of other novel solutions, for non-ablative heatshields?
Are tiles that much more cost effective as a thermal protection system?
What other novel methods have been tried? The obvious issues seem to be different thermal properties and rigidity and how to ...
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Typical external temperature profile for a LEO satellite
I bumped into a question regarding LEO orbit.
Is an external temperature profile available in literature as a first approximation for thermal analysis? I bumped into articles mentioning that the ...
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square-cube law and thermal protection tiles (TPS)
Yesterday, I asked a question about the square-cube law and propellant tanks.
Do larger rockets tend to have a better mass ratio due to the square cube law?
I have a very similar question about ...
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Maximum and minimum surface temperatures of a satellite in GEO?
Just as the title, how could one find out, or simply estimate the maximum and minimum likely surface temperatures of a satellite orbiting in GEO.
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Why aren't the radiators on the ISS straight?
The radiators look like a highly stretched paper accordion. Is it just because of how they decomposed, or is there a deeper reason?
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Why is insulation used in spacecraft thermal control?
The temperature of spaceships can range from -126° C to 149° C. Wouldn't it be better for the spaceship envelope to have as high a thermal conductivity as possible to even out the temperatures (the ...
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How to get the reduction in Heat Flux due to Barbecue Roll on Spacecraft?
As we know, to keep the surface of the spacecraft relatively cool, we spin the spacecraft so that not just one side of the spacecraft is heated.
Due to this what is the effective Heat Flux encountered ...
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What was the coolant that leaked out of the Soyuz?
What exactly is the coolant used in the Soyuz external thermal loop, the one that just leaked out of a Soyuz docked to the ISS?
I checked the Soyuz Crew Operations Manual but it just calls it the &...
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How can you calculate the pressure that a liquid develops when freezing in a pipe?
My current understanding is that in addition to the reasons pointed out in the answer to this question here, another reason for choosing
ammonia in the space station external coolant loops is that the ...
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Good solar absorptivity and infrared emissivity values for non-anodized machined aluminum
Existing sources that I'm looking at show a wide range of possible absorptivity/emissivity values for aluminum:
http://www.solarmirror.com/fom/fom-serve/cache/43.html
https://www.thermoworks.com/...
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