Quote:
Originally Posted by JSH
As do school bus manufacturers
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That's like saying manufactures prefer not to use full boat tails, as though a pure single function is the only goal.
The bus is white because chrome would add thousands to the cost of each bus for virtually no benefit.
Quote:
Originally Posted by freebeard
NASA and SpaceX seem to prefer white.
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Nope. I've never seen a satelite painted white. They often spend a lot of money on real gold for the lowest possible emissivity (0.05).
Rockets are white for cost, simplicity and/or simple practicality reasons. A cheap chrome wrap probably won't stand up to mach 30.
The whole emissivity argument is probably a non starter anyway since there's no real chrome in chrome wrap. The top layer at least is plastic which has the same emmisivity as car clear coat.