High-Performance Heat Shields for Planetary Entry Systems

R. Rouméas, T. Pichon & A. Lacombe

Given that the mission scenarios of several potential future European space projects will require spacecraft entries into the atmospheres of various planetary bodies, including Earth, a number of advanced heat-shield technologies are currently under investigation. Besides the cold-structure option using materials such as beryllium, SEP has been developing a very promising concept using a hot structure of carbon/carbon or carbon/silicon-carbide. Depending on the particular mission requirements, this hot structure can be protected from extreme heat fluxes by an additional ablative layer. This modular approach, which allows the thermal protection system’s performance to be tailored to the exact needs of the mission, forms the basis of the Sepcore ® concept (Fig. 1).