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Arc Jet and Return to Flight
06.22.05
 
Links to broadcast quality audio files and transcripts, May 4, 2005 interviews with Ernest Fretter and John Balboni, NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif., about the Ames 'Arc Jet' facilities and their use in returning the Space Shuttle to flight.

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Radio 16 bit 44.1 kilohertz stereo WAV 13.8 MB
Radio 320 kbps MP3 3.1 MB
on-line Mono-56kps MP3 564 KB

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Full Transcript (below)


10. Q: Since there are different missions for the future spaceship, the Crew Exploration Vehicle, and its design is not yet been determined, what kind of a heat shield might the CEV require?

Balboni: Well, for the shuttle-like or airplane-like concepts, the materials could be very similar to what's on the Space Shuttle today. But for the capsule-like concepts, the materials – ah, the temperatures would very likely be too high for the shuttle-like materials, and they'd have to go then to what were called ablating materials. Ablating materials can withstand higher temperatures because they actually are designed to slowly burn away in a controlled fashion very slowly. And that, and that ablating process then actually removes heat from the surface and keeps – tends to keep the temperatures cooler. (EDITED OUT VOICE STUMBLE.) Well, now, the Crew Exploration Vehicle, ah, initially will be used to service the International Space Station, which means it will be returning from an Earth orbit. And later on the concept would be then to fly to the Moon and beyond, and so, that the vehicle would then be returning from higher orbits and higher altitudes and higher speeds. And higher speeds always translate to higher temperatures on the thermal protection material. So, it's almost certain that the Crew Exploration Vehicle returning from the Moon and beyond would be a capsule-like material, or I'm sorry, a capsule-like configuration and using ablating materials, um, that have yet to be developed. (1:22 MINUTES)