Development of Inflatable Heat Shield Technology for Re-Entry Systems in EFESTO project

Abstract

The EFESTO project is funded by the European Union H2020 program. The purpose is to increase European capabilities in designing Inflatable Heat Shields for re-entry vehicles. The technology of inflatable heat shields enables increasing the spectrum of space-based applications as it provides effective heat protection and deceleration capabilities for atmospheric descent while being comparatively mass and volume efficient which is a significant asset for a space mission. The use of inflatable heat shields for Mars exploration and for Earth re-entry of a launcher upper-stage for later reuse were selected at the initial study phase as potential application for the HIAD technology. These two application cases are to demonstrate the performance of this technology under realistic conditions and to provide a representative study frame for the design of inflatable heat shields trained at tangible applications.