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Spacecraft re-entry

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Boots217 | 11:54 Sun 24th Feb 2008 | Science
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When a spacecraft re-enters the Earth's atmosphere the outer surface starts to burn away with friction. What is the 8 letter for this process
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The surface does not burn away at all. It is made of a refractory ceramic oxide that resists incredible temperatures.
It all depends on the spacecraft - Mercury, Gemini,and Apollo as well as all the Russian manned programmes used ablative heatshields - -so the word you're looking for is ablation. They work by shedding heat by burning (ablating) some of the surface structure of the heatshield.

The space shuttle works in a completely different way using heat resistant tiles, pyroceram nosecone, and thermal protective blanket material.
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Thank you Dundurn

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Spacecraft re-entry

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