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To: Thomas A Watson who wrote (129543)	8/3/2005 3:59:09 PM
From: aladin	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793896

Thomas, The tile approach was an innovative approach to a complex problem in the early 1970's. The ceramic technology of the 70's did not permit larger tiles or sheets to be used. If, and I agree its a big 'if', this new ceramic coating could be applied with less weight and fewer sections - that would be a significant upgrade. The proper computer analogy would be using 1,000 8086 processors to achieve multi gigabit performance, rather than a current 3 Gig Intel processor. John

To: Thomas A Watson who wrote (129543)	8/3/2005 5:13:44 PM
From: Elsewhere	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 793896

You like the verb "proffer". I post within the constraints of a message board. Of course it would be interesting to write long scientific essays on thermal protection systems. But I don't consider my posts as a preparation of a NASA meeting. The difference between the number of transistors you quote and the heat tiles is simple. If one transistor fails in a processor with billions of it there's a high probability that the user doesn't notice it. If one heat tile fails there is a moderate probability that the space shuttle is damaged fatally during re-entry and human lives are lost. Regarding the danger of many small tiles and their link to the shuttle here's this quote of the thermal protection suggested by the Stuttgart institute for the X-33: The metallic thermal protection system (TPS) has one big advantage: The panels don't have to be glued to the vehicle surface as is the case with the Shuttle today. After every Shuttle flight about 17,000 man-hours have to be spent to fix the thermal protection. Exchanging the individual TPS panels on the X-33 supposedly takes only five minutes. For this reason a full-size reusable launch vehicle VentureStar will be completely covered with the new metal TPS panels. flug-revue.rotor.com The risks associated with the tiles are outlined in the following article: M. Elisabeth Paté-Cornell and Paul S. Fischbeck, "Risk Management for the Tiles of the Space Shuttle," pp. 64-86, Interfaces 24, January-February 1994. informs.org It is no comparative study of tiles vs. the Stuttgart system but it shows that even the shuttle TPS on its own had not been examined rigorously.