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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 5.2 MB
Radio 320 kbps MP3 1.1 MB
on-line Mono-56kps MP3 208 KB

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Full Transcript (below)


2. Q: What happens to a spacecraft when it comes through an atmosphere at high speed?

Fretter: "Generally, at the edge there, where we start running into the gas molecules, it starts forming a shock layer. In other words, the object may be coming in like the Shuttle, around Mach 25. And it forms a shock layer in front of the spacecraft, and on the other side of the shock, the gas goes from cold air to very hot, disassociated plasma -- and that's where the extreme heating is that a spacecraft sees when it comes through the upper edges of the atmosphere." (31 SECONDS)