OK,
\nwhilst I was failing to get to sleep last night due to the effects of an
\noncoming cold and a cat which was very annoied by a fence it had got itself
\ntrapped under, I had a brainwave on how NASA can decrease the possibility
\nof another accident such as the one which happened on Saturday (assuming
\nthat the tiles were damaged by the lump of stuff falling off).<\/p>\n
My answer is:-<\/p>\n
Use a sandwich of tissue papaer and cheesey Watsits!<\/p>\n
More precisely, cover the underbelly of the shuttle prelaunch with a layer
\nof doped tissue paper, then apply a 2cm think layer of corn starch foam followed
\nby a final layer of tissue paper, doped.<\/p>\n
This should be a pretty light layer and as long as the starch foam is open
\nenough that there are interconnections between all the bubbles it shouldn’t
\nexplode as the shuttle gets higher. On all places other than on the leading
\nedges the aerodynamic pressure shouldn’t be such that it would get
\nripped off during the assent phase but it would act as a protective shield
\nagainst ice blocks etc. Even if the blocks penetrated the layer it would
\nstill cushion the impact and decrease the level of damage significantly.<\/p>\n
On the re-entry phase, the tissue papaer and strach would almost instantaniously
\ncarbonise and ablate off the surface leaving the tiles beneath pristine.<\/p>\n
So there you are, a low-tech solution to a high tech problem! \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
OK, whilst I was failing to get to sleep last night due to the effects of an oncoming cold and a cat which was very annoied by a fence it had got itself trapped under, I had a brainwave on … Continue reading