Inflatable Heat Shield

NASA successfully tested their new radical design of heat shield. This time they tested a inflatable heat shield after going through detail analysis on the new concept. According to NASA engineers this was the first time anyone has successfully flown an inflatable reentry capsule.

But where will this new concept fit in?; according to engineers this project can help NASA land more equipment on Mars. The Inflatable Re-entry Vehicle Experiment a.k.a IRVE is a giant mushroom like structure when fully inflated and made up silicon-coated Kevlar aeroshell. To perform the test this structure was packed inside a 6-inch diameter cylinder, but once it unfurls and is pumped full of nitrogen it is almost 10 feet wide.

On 17th Aug 2009 the 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. The heat shield was launched on a Black Brant 9 rocket and after 5 min the IRVE was released and started inflating 199.5 Km high up.

A Black Brant 9 rocket will lift the Inlatable Re-entry Vehicle Experiment to an altitude of about 130 miles above Earth. Image credit: NASA

From launch to splashdown, the IRVE mission will last about 19 minutes.

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