Page 191 - MY STORY
P. 191
>Irv: “No — that does not help me understand. Try
again.”
>Me: “OK, if the all the deposited laser energy was
absorbed on the satellite surface, and it did not have a
high thermal mass to soak it up, surface temperatures
could reach about 1500 degrees F. That’s enough to
easily melt aluminum, destroy optics and vaporize plastic
composites.”
>Irv: “I’m still not sure I get it.”
>Me: Getting a little frustrated with Irv’s inability to
understand something pretty simple. “Let’s see – when I
was a kid we might go out on a sunny day with our 10X
magnifying glasses and focus the sun image on a bug,
which promptly burned to a crisp.” So that’s like 10 times
the sun’s energy, which means we were going from 0.1
W/cm2 to 1.0 W/cm2 at the target (bug). That’s pretty
damned hot, and we’re talking deposited laser energy
well beyond that!” “Does, that help/”
>Irv: “Not really.” – Then he uttered “I’ve got it!”
“Here’s the question I want you to answer. How many
hot irons is that?”
