[amsat-bb] Re: New Cubesat - the Ultimate Fox Hunt

[Tony Langdon]

At 01:41 PM 8/10/2009, you wrote:
>I'm crunching numbers right now,  but just thought of something
>
>ICBM's  If we were to nuke RUSSIA or visa versa,  while these yes do not
>get to orbit,  they do get to just shy of orbital velocity, and re enter
>the atmosphere,  did they have all these elaborate heat shields?

I believe a lot of work on atmospheric entry (i.e. heat shielding) 
systems did actually start from the early days of ICBMs for this very 
reason.  I don't think the speeds are that close to orbital speeds 
(one only needs to fall 3000 miles away, not 8000+), though they are 
high enough that the warheads must be designed to survive re-entry.

There's a bit about ICBM re-entry systems on Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmospheric_reentry


73 de VK3JED / VK3IRL
http://vkradio.com