On Mon, 3 Feb 2003, David Weinshenker wrote:
> > ...its mechanical properties; the incredibly tedious process
> > of filling honeycomb with little squirts of ablator
>
> Did all of the US "capsule" spacecraft use that particular heat shield
> construction?
Gemini and Apollo did. Mercury used a simpler one-piece heatshield, which
was, however, much heavier per square meter. Fluffier ablators don't
ablate any better as far as I know, but they are better insulators, hence
the move toward compositions that needed mechanical support.
> I don't know if this is accurate, but I've heard references to Soviet
> construction of ablative shields from dense wood.
Not a Soviet practice as far as I know, but the Chinese have definitely
done it. The US did look at it, early on, and rejected it, but I don't
know the details. (They may just have been more concerned about weight.)
Henry Spencer
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