Quote: robkelk wrote:
Quote: I do NOT understand why they won't just PAINT THE DAMN TANK!Because paint has mass, and it takes reaction mass to push that mass into the air.
I believe the choice is to lift paint on the external tank up to the separation altitude or lift another day's rations for the crew into orbit; given
that, I'm quite happy seeing unpainted external tanks.
Well sure, this is true. But given that IIRC the shuttle rarely uses the maximum rating in it's cargo capacity anyway, it seems like there ought to have
been enough extra delta-v to cover that. I mean, let's turn that logic around - should we give them another day's rations or risk them not coming back
at all?