Surviving the fire: how games of chance are helping us understand spacecraft atmospheric entry

Anabel del Val

von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics

Space vehicles entering dense planetary atmospheres must withstand extreme heating conditions to protect the astronauts and the cargo from damage. Aerospace engineers rely either on reusable or ablative materials to protect the spacecraft from the intense heat. Reusable systems are characterized by re-radiating a significant amount of energy from the hot surface back into the atmosphere. Conversely, ablative systems transform the thermal energy into decomposition and removal of the protection material itself. To efficiently protect the spacecraft and adhere to the stringent mass budget of aerospace missions, we need to have a deep understanding of the physics behind these thermochemical environments. In this talk, I will briefly outline the complex nature of the theoretical modeling and experimental facilities used to study these reacting flows. I will then highlight recent progress in my PhD research to incorporate uncertainties in the difficult task of producing scientific inferences about the nature of the material decomposition and reactivity to the hot plasma flow.