Re: 50 years since landing on the moon...
Aeroplanes still use wings. And that's 115 year-old technology! It must be rubbish!
Heat shields work. They're simple, they do the job for minimal weight.
Wings are a bastard of a technology to shield from heat - as well as being incredibly heavy - you only use them for landing. We could, of course, go for a lifting body - which saves lots of weight - but is still going to have the problem of a heat shield.
The best solution is either going to be new wonder materials or it's going to be a breakthrough in propulsion othat allows us to slow down enough not to need to do aerobraking. Although in the case of the second, you've still got to carry the fuel - so there'll always be the temptation to just carry more payload and aerobrake.
If we could capture a nice icy comet, and refuel in orbit, then everything would be just tickety-boo. But all of this is a way off. At the moment re-usable rockets are winning over spaceplanes. It'll be interesting to see what the future holds.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
