United States of America As Represented by the Administrator of Nasa

Curt G Wilkinson

Ethiraj Venkatapathy

Jay D Feldman

Margaret M Stackpoole

Kenneth J Mercer

Donald T Ellerby

A thermal protection system (TPS) for a space vehicle that undergoes partial or full ablation when the TPS is exposed to severe heating during entry into a planetary atmosphere. A first layer includes at least one of carbon, phenolic, silica, alumina and another oxide, low thermal conductivity fibers and yarns connecting two or more first layer sub-layers, is recession-resistant and has reduced porosity. A second layer has a smaller fiber fraction, reduced thermal conductivity and reduced density, and serves as a thermal insulator. The first layer may have partial or full insertion of a resin, or may have a surface densified, recession-resistant sub-layer. Values of a first subset of as many as eight environmental parameters can be used to characterize the space vehicle mission. A second subset of TPS parameters for the system is evaluated to identify whether an ablator system with these TPS values can survive the conditions associated with the first subset of environmental parameters.

Woven thermal protection system

A system for fabricating an ablative, 3D fiber-woven thermal protection material, with porosity 0.5-15 percent, reduced thermal conductivity, very low thermal recession, high glass transition temperature, high frontface-backface temperature difference, relatively high mass density, and significant compression strength and tensile strength.

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Fleetwood, PA, United States of America

Curt G Wilkinson