Space Forum / Space Flight / July 2005

   Dear all:  As you may have heard, one of the difficulties in using the
Space Shuttle's External Tank as an orbiting space station or factory
(rather than allowing it simply to reenter to destruction) has been thought
to be the orange outer coating that insulates the cryogenic ...

What happens to upper stage exhaust plume products
after, for example, a geosynchronous transfer orbit
burn from an initial parking orbit?  Do the products
of combustion rapidly deorbit during subsequent

The header of the message pretty much says what my question is: Why is
Xenon the propellant of choice for an ion thruster?
What makes it a better choice than for instance nitrogen or oxygen?
TIA Roland.

http://mae.ucdavis.edu/faculty/sarigul/aiaa2001-4619.pdf
I got this link off http://www.hobbyspace.com/Links/RLVNews.html
Overall, I thought this was a great presentation... but when it came
to presenting their own idea, there were a couple bits I didn't get.

I was wondering if there was any resources in how to develop software
for rockets?
Kevin

Hi everyone. I'm working on the propulsion system for a small student
built satellite as part of the university nanosat competition and I was
hoping you could help point me in the right direction.
I've been trying very hard to find specific information on actual

Assuming we eventually wish to mine asteroids for useful materials, we
would need to first do some prospecting.  What is the best/most
economical method?  I presume an unmanned probe, perhaps teleoperated,
would be cheaper than sending astronauts.  Assume a 1 km diameter

Is it necessary for bipropellant rockets using a hydrogen peroxide
oxidizer to breakdown the peroxide with a catalyst as it enters the
combustion chamber, or can hydrogen peroxide just combust normally once
it encounters fuel (and an initial ignition source)?