Joke/Serious: Golf Ball Dimpled Re-Entry Vehicles

[Mazon Del]

I recently rewatched the episode of Mythbusters where they tried out how efficient a car was when it was provided the dimples from a golf ball. It ended up smoothing out the wake behind the vehicle if I remember right. They were approaching it from the perspective of fuel efficiency, what I'm wondering is, if you provided the same dimples to a craft undergoing re-entry, would this smooth out the wake and theoretically reduce buffeting?

I expect some humorous replies, as I am smirking myself right now. But at the same time, I'm quite curious if anyone has any idea as to what effect might be gained.

[Rakaydos]

For reentry, you wan the opposite effect, the bumps of a training golf ball.

Also, it may require spinning, but if not, it may be of benifit to spaceplanes, that spend ore time in higher drag regines.

[moogoob]

I can imagine someone suggesting this idea to NASA. "Whiffle Ball Re-entry" needs to be a thing.

[Mazon Del]

For reentry, you wan the opposite effect, the bumps of a training golf ball.

My understanding is that if you did that, it would increase the drag on the re-entry vehicles. While I understand the usefulness of increased drag, it would almost seem that the best setup is to keep the usual smooth/flat base, but then have the edges immediately around that, extending up just a bit of the hull, be the dimples. This causes the base to still have the properties NASA likes about such a base, but it might make the path through the upper atmosphere a bit smoother.

Thinking about it, one thing they did test on Orion was to drill a couple holes (I think one was 1 cm deep, and the other 3 cm deep) to see how it affected the shield. Different purpose though.

[B787_300]

while it might seem like a good idea aerodynamically, from a manufacturing perspective it would be an absolute nightmare and expensive

[Mazon Del]

I'm not even attempting to guess at what it might cost in terms of effort or money. I'm mostly curious about the physics aspect of it.

[KerikBalm]

I'm note sure that hypersonic flow works the same way as subsonic flows for these purposes

[pincushionman]

With a re-entry vehicle you want to slow down NOW, and drag-reduction features don't give you that.

Thst said, there is a place for that behavior in aerospace. Wings often have similar-behaving turbulence-generating features, but because they're wings and not balls, they look quite different.

[Bill Phil]

With a re-entry vehicle you want to slow down NOW, and drag-reduction features don't give you that.

Thst said, there is a place for that behavior in aerospace. Wings often have similar-behaving turbulence-generating features, but because they're wings and not balls, they look quite different.

Drag is not the prone cause of reentry heating or acceleration. It's the pressure difference, kind of like a wing.