Just watching the Orion test flight (congratulations on the perfect flight, America), and of course there was the familiar blackout during the reentry phase as plasma from the reentry (and whatever other effects) surrounded the capsule.
Will this forever be a period of communication blackout? Or is it possible that some clever mind will find a way through it?
I guess this is partly unanswerable because who knows what revolutionary inventions/desings will be thought up, but really I’m also interested in understand the interaction between reentry and coms. Thanks.
You could communicate using x-rays, gamma rays, or neutrinos or some other form of radiation that goes through the plasma. The question is whether or not adding a complex and heavy communication system is ever worth the cost.
http://urgentcomm.com/mag/shuttle-blackout-myth-persists - about 1/3 of the way down the article. Blackouts during reentry are no longer a problem. For this particular test there may not have been a satellite in proper position.
According to the article you linked to, the Space Shuttle was able to avoid such blackouts because of its shape – the wide planform of the winged vehicle left a gap in the ionized gases surrounding the vehicle so that radio signals could be sent upwards towards TDRSS satellites.
This wasn’t true for the older ‘capsule’-shaped designs, that linked article goes on to point out. Orion has a shape rather like those. NASA’s press kit for the flight says that Orion was expected to go into a 2.5-minute communications blackout during the re-entry (page 7).
It should be noted, as well, that TDRSS satellites are in geostationary orbits, and their coverage is near-global.
