We all watched Artemis II splash down yesterday… but I’ve got a real question 🤔 If that capsule just ripped through temps around 5,000° on reentry… where was the steam when it hit the ocean? 🌊🔥 Hot metal + cool water = steam, right? You’d expect a massive cloud, but there wasn’t much at all. So what’s the deal? Cooling before splash? Heat shielding doing its thing? Or something else we’re not being told? 👀 Curious what people think…

There are videos on NASA’s archives that show them experimenting with different types of ceramic based heat shielding where they heat them up to 5000° and can pick them up with their bare hands because of how fast they dissipate heat. It’s actually quite ingenious technology it’s how we launched the space shuttle programs. We put it on satellites to keep them from burning up in intermittently one of the most unique scientific advancements ever made in space travel specifically designed of the flash steam and the flash cooling would not crack, causing leaks before they could get crew members out of capsules or in case of emergencies I do enjoy engaging very much whether you believe or don’t believe the science behind. It’s pretty cool.

@Ogresgarage @mamacita4life2 That was the tiles for the shuttle, the Artemis uses an ablative heat shield. Not even close the same thing