THE EXPERT QUALIFICATION AND ACCEPTANCE CAMPAIGN: A MULTI-PURPOSE EXPERIENCE FOR FUTURE RE-ENTRY MISSIONS

摘要

EXPERT is developed by the European Space Agency (ESA) and an Industrial Consortium led by ThalesAlenia Space as Prime Contractor, in order to provide Scientific Community and Industry with qualitydata on critical aero-thermodynamic phenomena encountered during hypersonic flights as well as end-toendsystem experience related to development, manufacturing and qualification of re-entry vehiclehardware, software and hypersonic instrumentation. EXPERT is equipped with 15 experiments providedby several scientific institutions all around Europe. The experiments address the following phenomena:TPS material characterization, surface catalysis and oxidation, plasma spectroscopy, laminar to turbulenttransition, flow separation and reattachment, shock-boundary layer interactions, base flow characteristicand aerodynamic characterization of gap control surfaces. The paper focus on the peculiarities of thequalification and acceptance test campaign for the EXPERT project as precursor of new generation of reentryoperational vehicles. Environmental and functional test campaign from equipment to system levelhas allowed the successful delivery of the integrated system, leading to robust solutions for futuremanifold applications. EXPERT will benefit future atmospheric re-entry activities ranging from cargo tohuman orbital transportation systems as well as re-usable launchers and scientific probes.