Graham,
Cool. But still no cigar as far as Joe's question.
So.. the broad flat shape generates more compressive heating, than the more pointy nose of the launch vehicle. But... the launch vehicle is still going to generate a great deal of heat through the same process if it is doing the same hypersonic speed at the same altitude.
So is it?
Sil
Graham Shirville wrote:
According to the "Apollo 11 Owner's Workshop Manual" recently published by Haynes here in the UK page 71
"Atmospheric Heating" Frictional heating was not just a problem during re-entry. During the acceleration after launch through the thicker, lower atmosphere, the apex of the command module would also be exposed to aerodynamic heating and needed protection by an additional cork and fibreglass shroud attached to the launch escape tower. The far more intense re-entry heating is often mistakenly thought to be something to do with friction with the passing air. In fact the extra heating during re-entry is more comparable to the heat that builds up in a valve in a bicycle pump as air is compressed into a tyre. When any gas is compressed the amount of energy that it holds in a given volume rises. When the air in front of a blunt hypersonic craft cannot move aside fast enough it becomes compressed and so heats up for the same reason. During re-entry the speeds, and therefore the compression, are so great that the temperature can easily rise into the thousands of degrees, approaching the same sort of temperature as on the surface of the sun (5,500C) . The advantage of the blunt shape has in this process over a more streamlined form is that by creating this compressed layer of air ahead of it, the main part of the craft is separated from the hottest and most damaging heat."
So all we need is a cubesat containing a deorbit propulsion system so that the landing point can be carefully selected, which has inside it, a miniature Apollo shaped capsule made of titanium with a heat shield on the blunt end and which has ceramic panels so that the inbuilt GPS can receive and the VHF or UHF or S band transmitter can transmit.:)
73
Graham G3VZV
PS The Haynes Manual is available from the RSGB