Re: "I'll put my money on a Skylon."
alloy is a joke in space, its reinforced with 8 inches of copper on satellites so space dust cannot penetrate vital parts, and belongs in the 1990's, and would also be alot more weight having to carry extra alloy plating if abit of space debris between the size of dust and a minoe/goldfish, hits your hull with a terminal velocity of probably 200,000 MPH +. as man's first deep space shuttle would'nt just be shooting off at half the speed of light
having some modern classified toughened graphite compound would make alot easier when it comes to fixing a hull, as the hull would'nt be less then 1 inch thick
even if you beat a toughend graphite tennis racket with a hammer, it will end up in alot better shape then a alloy racket
Biting the hand that feeds IT
