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by pfdietz 846 days ago
I believe for entry from LEO, and particularly for small RVs like this one, convective heating is orders of magnitude higher than radiative heating.

https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/20140012475/downloads/20... (see slide 7)
1 comments
BryanLegend 846 days ago
From Slide 7: "Radiation dominates convection at ~11.5km/s for 1m radius • Radiation dominates convection at ~10km/s for 5m radius"
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pfdietz 846 days ago
Since this is reentering from LEO, it's maybe 8km/s (and dropping). And the radius of curvature on the nose of that shield was maybe 20 cm?
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