“Metal tiles … did not work so well,” he said. “They oxidized very nicely in a high oxygen environment. So this nice orange color, as if [space] Outer shuttle reservoir Color, maybe paying tribute to the ferry program, was created by these three miniature metal tiles upstairs. “
Gerstenmaier has talent to explain intricate technical concepts in a digestible way. He began his career as an air engineer working on the space ferry program at NASA in 1977. He got up through the ranks in NASA to become the head of all human space flight programs, and then joined SpaceX in 2020.
The experiment with metal tiles is a symbol of the way Spacex develops a spaceship. The company’s engineers are moving quickly to make changes and integrate up-to-date projects with each test flight. Metal thermal disc tiles are not a up-to-date technology. Nasa I tested them in laboratories in the seventies But I never flew them.
“I think we learned a lot, taking them to the flight, and we still had sufficient protection underneath that they did not cause a problem,” said Gerstenmaier. “In most tiles there are quite large gaps and this is where we see how the heat goes underneath.”
The Starship heat shield championship is crucial for the future of the program. The heat shield must be hard-wearing for the ship ship to be reusable. Eye musking that advises space ships within 24 hours.
The cosmic space NASA used about 24,000 exquisite ceramic tiles to protect them from the hottest temperatures of re -entry, but the materials were exquisite and susceptible to injuries, requiring manually renovation and touch between missions. The Dragon Crew Spacex capsule has a reusable structure that is under the basis of the heat cover, but the heat shield itself is used only once.
In the case of a spacecraft, SpaceX needs a heat shield, which is space rigors – vibrations during the premiere, extreme thermal cycles in space, heat heat re -entrance and crushing the arms of grabbing the starting pad at the end of each mission. Musk called a multiple operate ship with the “greatest” engineering challenge for the spacecraft program.
Continuing his presentation, Gerstenmaier pointed to a stain of white near the Starship heat shield. He said that it was caused by heat penetration between the gaps in the tiles and the erosion of the material underlying the thermal barrier from the thermal shield on the Spacex Space Sjemo. Technicians deliberately removed some tiles near the Starship nose to test the vehicle’s response.
“Basically, it is a white material that sits on dragons and he is Ababarz, and when Abarenje creates this white residue,” said Gerstenmaier. “So it shows us that the heat basically gets to this region between the tiles, goes under the tiles, and this ablative structure is then ablative underneath. So we learned that we must seal the tiles.”
The basic structure of the ship is made of a special stainless steel alloy. Most other spacecraft designed for re -entrance, such as the Space Furture and the Dragon, are made of aluminum. The higher melting point of the steel makes the ship more forgiving damage to the heat shield than the ferry.