J.H. Koo, S. Kim, B. Rech, R. Feru, and L. Pilato
KAI, LLC and The University of Texas at Austin, Texas, United States
Keywords: Thermal protection systems, Hypersonic applications, Low-density flexible ablators, PICA, Polsiloxane resin
*jkoo@koo-associates.com Thermal protection systems (TPS) are designed to protect vehicles that encounter extreme aerothermal conditions, often caused by atmospheric friction at high speeds. Vehicles traveling at high speeds when reentering the atmosphere experience significant heat loads due to air compression; a hot shock wave is created ahead of the object, compressing the air, and turning it into plasma. This generates a high heat load due to convective heat transfer between the shock wave and the spacecraft's skin through superheated plasma. Thermal protection materials are required to protect the structural components of these reentry vehicles during flight. These TPS materials are often designed to degrade or ablate as a sacrificial means of thermal mitigation and often aim to have low densities for weight and cost considerations. These ablative materials are typically tested using an Oxy-Acetylene Test Bed (OTB) to measure ablation and heat transfer characteristics without the expense of spaceflight. The KAI-UT team has designed, manufactured, tested, and evaluated LDFA for three years. This family of LDFA/pUHTR performed better than NASA’s SOTA Phenolic Impregnated Carbon Abator (PICA) material. This innovative technology is ready to be scaled up and commercialized.