NASA launched an inflatable spacecraft heat shield on Monday
to test the technology for use on future space missions.
The test flight lofted a vacuum-packed shroud atop a small
sounding rocket from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Va.
Several minutes after liftoff, the shield inflated to a 10-foot-diameter (3 m) mushroom
shape, and fell back down to Earth.
The experiment showed that such a device could be used to
slow and protect a space capsule
as it enters the atmosphere at hypersonic speeds. The material - several layers
of silicone-coated Kevlar - could be used to insulate a crew and cargo from the
searing
temperatures of re-entry.
"This was a huge success," said Mary Beth Wusk,
project manager for the Inflatable Re-entry Vehicle Experiment (IRVE), based at
Langley. "IRVE was a small-scale demonstrator. Now that we've proven the
concept, we'd like to build more advanced aeroshells capable of handling higher
heat rates."
Today's test flight was the first time anyone has
successfully flown an inflatable re-entry capsule, according to engineers at
NASA's Langley Research Center.
The experiment flew to an altitude of 131 miles atop a Black
Brant 9 rocket. After a four-minute climb, the shield was released from its
cover and was pumped full of nitrogen in less than 90 seconds.
"Everything performed well even into the subsonic range
where we weren't sure what to expect," said Neil Cheatwood, IRVE principal
investigator and chief scientist for the Hypersonics Project of NASA's
Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate's Fundamental Aeronautics Program.
"The telemetry looks good. The inflatable bladder held up well."
Scientists are interested in using similar shields to help
land large objects on
Mars.
"We'd like to be able to land more mass on Mars,"
Cheatwood said. "To land more mass you have to have more drag. We need to
maximize the drag area of the entry system. We want to make it as big as we
can, but the limitation has been the launch vehicle diameter."
The idea of inflatable decelerators has been around for 40
years, Cheatwood said, but until now did not seem practical because of concerns
over whether materials could withstand the heat of re-entry. Over time
materials have advanced enough to make the concept plausible. In addition, a
greater understanding of the Martian atmosphere gleaned from Mars rovers,
landers and orbiters, indicates that the plan has potential.
advertisement
+in+the+lab.+Credit%3A+NASA%2FSean+Smith){kind=link}