Re:Starship Radiators
by dalke on Tuesday February 04, 2014 @01:12PM
(#7179185)
> In order for a radiator to do its job, it has to be immersed in some sort of working medium ... You can sort of make a "radiative transfer" radiator, but they don't work quite the same.
You should re-read Pinckney's essay on the assumption that it specifically concerns the latter type of radiator. Consider that "efficiency is as the fourth power of temperature" is a reference to the Stefan–Boltzmann law for black-body radiative heat transfer.
Consider too that the linked-to essay, in the part about radiative cooling and with worked-out details about Stefan-Boltzmann, refers to a working temperature of 2200 K, where the T-to-the-fourth really kicks in.
You should re-read Pinckney's essay on the assumption that it specifically concerns the latter type of radiator. Consider that "efficiency is as the fourth power of temperature" is a reference to the Stefan–Boltzmann law for black-body radiative heat transfer.
Consider too that the linked-to essay, in the part about radiative cooling and with worked-out details about Stefan-Boltzmann, refers to a working temperature of 2200 K, where the T-to-the-fourth really kicks in.