NASA Launches New Technology: An Inflatable Heat Shield

WALLOPS ISLAND, Va., Aug. 17 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A successful NASA
flight test Monday demonstrated how a spacecraft returning to Earth can use an
inflatable heat shield to slow and protect itself as it enters the atmosphere
at hypersonic speeds.

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO)

The Inflatable Re-entry Vehicle Experiment, or IRVE, was vacuum-packed into a
15-inch diameter payload "shroud" and launched on a small sounding rocket from
NASA's Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Va., at 8:52 a.m. EDT. The
10-foot diameter heat shield, made of several layers of silicone-coated
industrial fabric, inflated with nitrogen to a mushroom shape in space several
minutes after liftoff.

The Black Brant 9 rocket took approximately four minutes to lift the
experiment to an altitude of 131 miles. Less than a minute later it was
released from its cover and started inflating on schedule at 124 miles up. The
inflation of the shield took less than 90 seconds.

"Our inflation system, which is essentially a glorified scuba tank, worked
flawlessly and so did the flexible aeroshell," said Neil Cheatwood, IRVE
principal investigator and chief scientist for the Hypersonics Project at
NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va. "We're really excited today
because this is the first time anyone has successfully flown an inflatable
reentry vehicle."

According to the cameras and sensors on board, the heat shield expanded to its
full size and went into a high-speed free fall. The key focus of the research
came about six and a half minutes into the flight, at an altitude of about 50
miles, when the aeroshell re-entered Earth's atmosphere and experienced its
peak heating and pressure measurements for a period of about 30 seconds.

An on board telemetry system captured data from instruments during the test
and broadcast the information to engineers on the ground in real time. The
technology demonstrator splashed down and sank in the Atlantic Ocean about 90
miles east of Virginia's Wallops Island.

"This was a small-scale demonstrator," said Mary Beth Wusk, IRVE project
manager, based at Langley. "Now that we've proven the concept, we'd like to
build more advanced aeroshells capable of handling higher heat rates."

Inflatable heat shields hold promise for future planetary missions, according
to researchers. To land more mass on Mars at higher surface elevations, for
instance, mission planners need to maximize the drag area of the entry system.
The larger the diameter of the aeroshell, the bigger the payload can be.

The Inflatable Re-entry Vehicle Experiment is an example of how NASA is using
its aeronautics expertise to support the development of future spacecraft. The
Fundamental Aeronautics Program within NASA's Aeronautics Research Mission
Directorate in Washington funded the flight experiment as part of its
hypersonic research effort.

For images and more information about the experiment, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/topics/aeronautics/features/irve.html

SOURCE NASA

Beth Dickey, Headquarters, Washington, +1-202-358-2087,
beth.dickey-1@nasa.gov; H. Keith Henry, Langley Research Center, Va.,
+1-757-864-6120, +1-757-344-7211, h.k.henry@nasa.gov; or Keith Koehler,
Wallops Flight Facility, Wallops Island, Va., +1-757-824-1579,
keith.a.koehler@nasa.gov, all of NASA