nose cone
| Dictionary: nose cone |
n.
The forwardmost, usually separable section of a rocket or guided missile that is shaped to offer minimum aerodynamic resistance and often bears protective cladding against heat.
| 5min Related Video: nose cone |
| Sci-Tech Encyclopedia: Nose cone |
The forward portion of a spacecraft that is designed for atmospheric entry. Nose cones are utilized for intercontinental ballistic missiles and spacecraft such as Apollo and space shuttles. The nose cone is required to withstand heating encountered during atmospheric entry, maintain the structural integrity of the spacecraft, prevent overheating of the payload, and usually maintain the aerodynamic characteristics of the spacecraft.
Even for a properly designed shape, it is inevitable that some fraction of the spacecraft's, initial kinetic energy will finally reach the nose cone in the form of heat. The design of the heat shield for the nose cone is a complex procedure, which is highly dependent on the heating level. There are a variety of surface-protection or cooling systems which have been used. Generally these systems consist of heat sinks of various types: the absorption of heat by virtue of a material's, sensible heat capacity, latent heat capacity, or chemical heat capacity. That is, heat absorption is accomplished by a temperature rise, a phase change, or a chemical reaction. Aerodynamic lift is employed by such vehicles as reusable space shuttles to lower heating rates so that the nose cone material can radiate away much of the incident heating.
Ablation is used to provide surface protection. The designer can divert heat from the spacecraft by allowing the nose cone's outer layer of material to melt, vaporize, or sublime. While large ablation rates provide excellent thermal protection, the resulting change in profile due to surface recession can adversely change the aerodynamic characteristics of the spacecraft. The designer must account for this change. See also Space shuttle; Spacecraft structure.
| WordNet: nose cone |
Note: click on a word meaning below to see its connections and related words.
The noun has one meaning:
Meaning #1:
front consisting of the conical head of a missile or rocket that protects the payload from heat during its passage through the atmosphere
Synonym: ogive
| Wikipedia: Nose cone |
For the Transformer, see Technobots.
The term nose cone is used to refer to the forwardmost section of a rocket, guided missile or aircraft. The cone is shaped to offer minimum aerodynamic resistance. Nose cones are also designed for travel in and under water and in high speed land vehicles.
On a rocket vehicle it consists of a chamber or chambers in which a satellite, instruments, animals, plants, or auxiliary equipment may be carried, and an outer surface built to withstand high temperatures generated by aerodynamic heating. Much of the fundamental research related to hypersonic flight was done towards creating viable nose cone designs for the atmospheric reentry of spacecraft and ICBM reentry vehicles.
In a satellite vehicle, the nose cone may become the satellite itself after separating from the final stage of the rocket or it may be used to shield the satellite until orbital speed is accomplished, then separating from the satellite.
The shape of the nose cone must be chosen for minimum drag so a solid of revolution is used that gives least resistance to motion. The article on nose cone design contains possible shapes and formulas.
Due to the extreme temperatures involved, nose cones for high-speed applications (eg. hypersonic speeds or atmospheric reentry of orbital vehicles) have to be made of refractory materials. Pyrolytic carbon is one choice, reinforced carbon-carbon composite or HRSI ceramics are other popular choices. Other design strategy is using ablative heat shields, which get consumed during operation, disposing of excess heat that way. Popular materials for ablative shields are eg. carbon phenolic, polydimethylsiloxane composite with silica filler and carbon fibers, or, like in case of some Chinese FSW reentry vehicles, oak wood.[1]
Generally speaking the constraints and goals for atmospheric reentry conflict with those for other high speed applications, during reentry a high drag blunt reentry shape is frequently used, which minimises the heat transfer by creating a shock wave that stands off from the vehicle, but some very high temperature materials may permit sharper edged designs.
See also
References
- ^ "Ballistic Missile Basics". Special Weapons Primer. Federation of American Scientists. http://www.fas.org/nuke/intro/missile/basics.htm. Retrieved 2008-02-03.
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
Learn More
 | companion body (aerospace engineering) |
| reentry nose cone (aerospace engineering) |
| afterbody (aerospace engineering) |
 | What is the nose cone of a rocket? Read answer... |
| How does a nose cone work? Read answer... |
| What do you do when you have holes in a rocket nose cone? Read answer... |
Help us answer these
 | What does a nose cone do for the bottle rocket? |
| What is a nose cone on a space shuttle? |
| How does a nose cone affect a rocket? |
Post a question - any question - to the WikiAnswers community:
Copyrights:
 |
 | Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more |
 |
| Sci-Tech Encyclopedia. McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science and Technology. Copyright © 2005 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Read more |
 |
| WordNet. WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. Read more |
 |
| Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Nose cone". Read more |
Related answers
- Why are nose cones good on rockets?
- Does the nose cone on the rocket have to be pointed?
- Where was the nose cone of concorde made?
ADVERTISEMENT
Answer these
- What are Features of a typical nose cone?
- How are nose cone produced?
- What is the function of the nose cone?
- What is a nose cone use for?
Mentioned in
- companion body (aerospace engineering)
- reentry nose cone (aerospace engineering)
- afterbody (aerospace engineering)
- reduviid bug
