BusbyLogic
Spaceman
Ridgerunner said:Painted. That's right. It's been a while. What I've been thinking lately is, what was on a Saturn V? Didn't seem to be a problem with shit flying off those. And if weight is a concern (there was something about only a couple of the shuttles were light enough to make it to the space station), how about putting a third solid rocket booster opposite the shuttle? More thrust = more weight in orbit. Maybe it's too simple.
Saturn Vs tanks were all internat with a superstructure surrounding it. The foam is there to keep the super cooled liquid oxygen and nitrogen from forming ice on the External tank. "ice does more damage than foam. Adding a 3rd SRB would cost about as much as designing a new shuttle due to the cost of firguring out the ammount of thrust needefd to keep the shuttle from tipping over on launch if its not ballenced right BOOM. If you knew anything about how the government ran things you would know how tuff they are on safty.I am in the US navy onboard the USS Ohio which is almost complete with its conversion from SSBN to SSGN and safty is a pain. I can explain more if you wish.