[Salgak]

Good idea, but impractical. I had a friend in the USAF who worked Shuttle Ops. Tiles differ in size, shape, and thickness, depending on where they're placed. Mounting a replacement tile is a multi-week iteration. And in any case, the shuttle lacked EVA suits sufficient to even TRY such repairs. . .

[John Jamieson]

Right

[Oztrich Boy]

OK. so devise a repair kit that moulds epoxy-ablative material over the missing tile space. if aerodynamically necessary, mould a dummy ablative patch on the other wing.

Anything has got to be better than a system where losing one of 10,000 tiles dooms the entire craft and everybody on board.

[Monitor]

Good idea, but impractical. I had a friend in the USAF who worked Shuttle Ops. Tiles differ in size, shape, and thickness, depending on where they're placed. Mounting a replacement tile is a multi-week iteration. And in any case, the shuttle lacked EVA suits sufficient to even TRY such repairs. . .

The engineer in me has been thinking about this all day. A small autonomous robot that, on every mission, is dispatched from the shuttle to inspect the tiles, most important tiles first.

As for repairing/replacing a damaged or missing tile - and I have to say I'm ignorant of how these tiles are manufactured - either a small on-board CNC machine that could machine a temporary tile from stock material to fit, or a heat-resistant epoxy-like material that can be applied. Neither solution need be permanent, only requiring they can withstand a single reentry.