[Space, Spaceships] Armor needed for Aerobraking/Re-entry

[Humabout]

Originally Posted by DaltonS

Ah, but aerobraking is all about using atmospheric friction to provide the ΔV to transition from escape to orbital velocity. There should be an equation to calculate how long it takes. Maybe N=k*ΔV/A where N is the number of passes required, ΔV is velocity that needs to be shed to attain orbit, A is the ship's armor in dDR and k is a constant. Not sure how to convert N into time units. (Atmosphere density is probably a factor too.)

Dalton “because 'how long it takes' can be critical” Spence

Well, the drag force a craft would experience is F_d = 1/2*roh*C_d*A*v^2, where roh = atmospheric density, A = area of the ship's cross-section normal to its velocity vector, C_d = the ship's coefficient of drag, and v = velocity. If you know how much ΔV this will take, you can always set [Ship's Mass] * ΔV = F_d*t and solve for time that way. It's worth noting that roh is a function of altitude, and v is dependent on the drag force at any given time, so this might get kind of nasty. You'll also have to decide on values for A and C_d pretty arbitrarily.