Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!bloom-beacon!think!ames!vsi1!daver!mfgfoc!mike
From: mike@mfgfoc.UUCP (Mike Thompson)
Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Subject: Re: Heavy Lift Capacity Boosters
Message-ID: <434@mfgfoc.UUCP>
Date: 29 Sep 88 20:38:01 GMT
References: <6936@ihlpl.ATT.COM>
Organization: FOCUS Semiconductor Sys., Sunnyvale, CA
Lines: 30

From article <6936@ihlpl.ATT.COM>, by knudsen@ihlpl.ATT.COM (Knudsen):
> In article <2248@ssc-vax.UUCP>, eder@ssc-vax.UUCP (Dani Eder) writes:
>> The SSMEs are packaged in a recoverable pod which comes down on
>> parachutes.
> 
> Good idea.  But don't the SSMEs go into orbit?
> Does their pod need both retro-rockets and an ablative heat shield
> to re-enter safely before deploying the chutes?
> Also, aren't the complex liquid engines more easily damaged
> by the splashdown and salt water corrosion while they're
> waiting to be fished out of the water?

	 Perhaps the pod the SSMEs would go in can be wrapped in ceramic
	 tiles just like the shuttle is.  It seems that the tiles would
	 make a good (and cheap) replacement for an ablative head shield.
	 The tiles may have to be thicker than the .5" to 4" ones on 
	 the shuttle.  We could then aim the pod that contains the 
	 SSMEs towards a large desert on land (New Mexico???) for a soft
	 landing by huge parachutes.  This is assuming that sea water
	 would damage an SSME.

	 Just a few ideas I had.

	 Mike Thompson

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Michael P. Thompson                      FOCUS Semiconductor Systems, Inc.
net: (sun!daver!mfgfoc!mike)      570 Maude Court
att: (408) 738-0600 ext 370              Sunnyvale, CA  94086 USA
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