Overview of Initial Development of Flexible Ablators for Hypersonic Inflatable Aerodynamic Decelerators

摘要

This paper describes the development of flexible ablative materials that represent a new class of thermal protection system (TPS) materials. NASA determined a need for flexible materials that could withstand heating at 120 W/cm2 for landing large payloads at Mars. Traditional flexible, insulative TPS materials would not survive these high heating rates, so the development of ablative flexible materials began. NASA's previous success with developing rigid ablators based on silicaceous and carbonaceous rigid reinforcements led their scientists to attempt to extend the concepts utilizing silicaceous and carbonaceous flexible substrates. In addition, even more innovative approaches were attempted utilizing polymeric and polymeric/organic flexible substrates. Screening tests were performed on the first phase of materials with excellent results. A second year of innovation has led to development of 15 different variants and improvements on the first year's materials, along with 5 vendor developed materials, with a comprehensive screening test matrix planned.