Briefs: Florida RLV prize program proposed; Tiles on Orion

Legislation is proposed in Florida to support a RLV development prize program: Florida Proposes $40 Million Reusable Space Industry Prize Program - Spaceports
===
Otherwise, space capsules on throwaway vehicles may be the future for Florida's space industry: New use for NASA's ceramic thermal-protection tiles saves some jobs at Kennedy Space Center - OrlandoSentinel.com (via ParabolicArc.com).

Posted 03/10/08 | 11:26:32 by TopSpacer | Filed under: Space Prizes

Comments

Ceramic tiles again. . . get real! Metal based all weather TPS was developed way back in the sixties and refined again for the X-33. Ok breathe deep and count to ten. After all this is a government jobs based agency. Swallow hard and accept "it is what it is". I guess we're just going to have to learn to live with pork based space technology. Like it or not for now NASA SEI is the only space program with established ambitions beyond LEO.

However I expect much better than this from the private sector.

Posted by Doug at 03/10/08 18:02:28

$40M for an RLV prize is like offer $1000 to build a skyscraper... :)

Posted by gm at 03/10/08 18:42:14

Metal based TPS works better at lower temps, not lunar reentry temps.

Posted by Nemo at 03/11/08 10:03:36

You could be right Nemo no doubt the blunt bottom will take a beating. However the conical sides should be cooler. Tiles... sounds like a widow maker to me. I no longer care how 21st century NASA gets to the moon. Tiles, splash downs, solid fuel boosters etc . . . just get'er done! I'm not getting any younger.

Posted by Doug at 03/12/08 19:13:22

Add Comment

Note: HTML code will not work except for bare URLs (i.e. http://www...). Also, for postings older than 1 week, comments are filtered manually to prevent spam and so may not appear for a few days.
Note: Trash talking and name calling, especially in anonymous comments, won't be tolerated.