An artist's concept of a spacecraft using a heat shield made from the soil of another world, called regolith.
Arc jet testing under intense temperatures and pressures showed that
heat shields made from the soil of other worlds will stand up to the
conditions they would encounter plunging through Earth's atmosphere,
researchers said this week.
Michael Hogue, a researcher at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in
Florida, led a team of engineers as they exposed samples of heat shield
materials to an intense plasma wind known as an arc jet at Ames research
Center earlier this week. The 2-inch by 4-inch shaped blocks were made
from different mixtures of soil simulating lunar and Martian regolith.
The scientists recorded no burn-through or uneven erosion of the
surface on any of the samples through a series of progressively higher
energy levels, Hogue said.
The test results mean the idea of making heat shields out of the
soils, or regolith, of other planets and moons remains feasible, Hogue
said.
For mission planners in the future, the concept could produce a
windfall of weight savings because spacecraft could make their own
shielding on planets and moons where gravity is so low that it would
take little energy to lift even a massive heat shield from the surface
into orbit. Lifting material from Earth's surface and gravity well
requires a great deal of thrust and cost, by contrast.
Applications could include an uncrewed spacecraft molding a heat
shield on a Martian moon and then riding it through the Martian
atmosphere to make a landing. The same principle could be applied to a
large habitation module for astronauts or any number of similar
missions.
The technology remains in its infancy, but with strong test results,
Hogue and his team will be able to complete a report by the end of
November and apply for continued funding to develop the innovation
further.
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