Should We Reconsider Painting the ET?

>From looking back over the archives of this group, it seems this idea has
never been seriously discussed. It quickly goes off on unrelated tangents.

But what if we painted the ET with a latex-like paint? It's fairly elastic
and might provide just enough surface tension to retain the foam. It also
would protect the foam from aging and hardening during extended launch
delays, a clearly documented problem.

I realized we're talking about an extra 800-1200lbs and cost/turn-around
increase, but that seems like a fair tradeoff for a significant safety
margin increase.

Thoughts?


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