Inflateable heat shield

choff · Post by **choff** » Tue Jul 31, 2012 6:39 pm

New stuff from NASA.

http://news.yahoo.com/nasa-successfully ... tml?_esi=1

Skipjack · Post by **Skipjack** » Tue Jul 31, 2012 11:13 pm

Yeah, from the sketches I am bit bummed by the fact that folded up it does stll look pretty big compared to the actual spacecraft it is meant to protect. Unless the spacecraft can be bigger in relation to the heatshield, I am not sure how much of an improvement this really is over a more concentional heatshield in terms of weight and bulk.
I guess/hope that the relation of packed to inflated will be better the bigger the thing gets, but I am not sure.