At 06:05 PM 7/23/2001 -0500, Jim Choate wrote:
On Mon, 23 Jul 2001, Steve Schear wrote:
It's the one they use primarily.
Only because the rocket exterior has not been "stealthed" via high reflectivity and faceting.
Maybe. But even mirrors can be burned through by a laser. And then we've got weight issues that this would entail. It's not like they've got a lot of overhead for the job. I suspect that faceting wouldn't be any more effective than a smoothly round body form, it could have aerodynamic effects as well (ie sharp corners at the facet edges - and yes they could be rounded - now you're moving back toward a round rocket planform).
Ahhh but faceted exterior would deny the adversary less a visual or radar cross section to acquire and track (yeah I know about the tail plume). steve