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Facing the Heat Barrier - A History of Hypersonics (Paperback)
Loot Price: R743
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Facing the Heat Barrier - A History of Hypersonics (Paperback)
Series: NASA History
Expected to ship within 10 - 15 working days
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Hypersonics is the study of flight at speeds where aerodynamic
heating dominates the physics of the problem. Typically this is
Mach 5 and higher. Hypersonics is an engineering science with close
links to supersonics and engine design. Within this field, many of
the most important results have been experimental. The principal
facilities have been wind tunnels and related devices, which have
produced flows with speeds up to orbital velocity. Why is it
important? Hypersonics has had two major applications. The first
has been to provide thermal protection during atmospheric entry.
Success in this enterprise has supported ballistic-missile nose
cones, has returned strategic reconnaissance photos from orbit and
astronauts from the Moon, and has even dropped an instrument
package into the atmosphere of Jupiter. The last of these
approached Jupiter at four times the speed of a lunar mission
returning to Earth. Work with re-entry has advanced rapidly because
of its obvious importance. The second application has involved
high-speed propulsion and has sought to develop the scramjet as an
advanced airbreathing ramjet. Scramjets are built to run cool and
thereby to achieve near-orbital speeds. They were important during
the Strategic Defense Initiative, when a set of these engines was
to power the experimental X-30 as a major new launch vehicle. This
effort fell short, but the X-43A, carrying a scramjet, has recently
flown at Mach 9.65 by using a rocket. Atmospheric entry today is
fully mature as an engineering discipline. Still, the Jupiter
experience shows that work with its applications continues to reach
for new achievements. Studies of scramjets, by contrast, still seek
full success, in which such engines can accelerate a vehicle
without the use of rockets. Hence, there is much to do in this area
as well. For instance, work with computers may soon show just how
good scramjets can become.
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