Re-Entry Technology For High Enthalpic Trajectories

Abstract

For the atmospheric re-entry of spacecraft from high energetic trajectories a high-performance thermal protection system (TPS) is needed to withstand the extreme heat fluxes. During sample return missions as well as the entry maneuver into the atmosphere of a gas giant like Jupiter thermal loads may exceed the loads of a re-entry maneuver from earth orbit by two or three orders of magnitude. Such missions are also extremely mass sensitive. In addition, the uncertainty of the modeling of coupled ablation, floating and plasma radiation processes causes a conservative design, which results in an over dimensioning of the TPS. The objective of our work is the development of an ablative light-weight TPS for high enthalpic trajectories. We also try to exploit knowledge gained during another project, studying the “virtual” characterization of permeable materials used in transpiration cooled structures by means of X-ray computed tomography