Recent content by Gords

Thanks and great research, but agree the marshmallow analogy is a bit of a strange one. Yes intumescent work by a combination of straight forward insulation in an unreacted condition, plus increasing insulation as the char volume increases steadily during exposure (+ some ablation). Avcoat...

Intumescent used to protect against cryogenic spill + fire also have to be designed to last 20-30 years in aggressive environments (think an offshore oil rig), which is not really the case for space reentry use. I think if there was a chance for the more current technology to work (and...

What the testing proved is that intumescent' s can withstand cryogenic to high energy/high heat cycles

An industry body was formed to look at this, leading to a new set of ISO standards to cover cryogenic spill protection, followed by high intensity hydrocarbon fire (including high temperature/high heat flux pressurized 'jet' fires). Interestingly NASA, with their expertise in handling cryogenic...

An extremely valid observation/comment on the extreme temperature cycling that will be experienced from the cold of space to reentry. Such cycles can and do damage to what are fundamentally very thick film coating systems (basically paints). With the advent of the LNG industry the subject of...

Regards to SpaceX I am not sure what they are doing, but would fully understand a totally different approach in that they are designing for reusable systems vs NASA's single use approach. Intumescent/ablative systems are sacrificial by design and when used/exposed to the forces they need to...

I would agree with NASA's predicament in looking at and testing new technology, this is a very fair comment.

I enjoy reading all these engineering debates and potential solutions, but nobody is really picking up on the heat shield design itself, which is quoted as being technology from the Apollo era. A spin off from the original heat shield technology has been oil + gas passive fire protection using...