The importance of a silica surface in affecting both the state-to state kin
etics and the macroscopic properties of an O-2/O mixture hitting a blunt bo
dy at hypersonic speed has been investigated. First, the surface has been c
onsidered catalytic only for recombination: three different assumptions are
examined and compared with the results from a noncatalytic surface model.
Second, both deactivation and dissociation are treated in the framework of
a catalytic surface.