Preliminary Design Study for Thin-layered Thermal Protection Systems for Future, Reusable Spacecraft Structures Exposed to Moderate Heat Loads - Presentation

Kurzfassung

To reduce launch costs for space projects, research and development efforts are increasingly focusing on reusable rocket first stages. For applications subjected to moderate thermal loads (<1000 °C), ceramic solutions as Thermal Protection Systems (TPS) are often complex, expensive, and oversized; Ablators as alternative are not fully reusable. The goal of the hereafter presented work is to bridge this technological gap by developing concepts for a passive, reusable, thin-layered thermal protection system designed for use on reusable first-stage rockets and intended to offer economic benefits through reusability. To achieve this, a database was created that contains relevant material properties and enables the comparison of material candidates that are potentially suitable for the application. Then, supported by thermal-transient numerical optimization analyses, concepts for future, passive and thin-layered TPS are developed and compared. The investigated materials and concepts are finally tested within a burner-testbench setup to prove their feasibility.