C2.4 Paolo Santini’s Memorial Lecture: Ablators from Apollo to Future Missions to Moon, Mars, and Beyond

Symposium: C2. IAF MATERIALS AND STRUCTURES SYMPOSIUM
Session: 4 – Advanced Materials and Structures for High Temperature Applications
Room: 152B
Time: 09:45

When Apollo was designed to carry astronauts safely back from the Moon, at return speeds exceeding 11 km/s, it required development of a new lightweight ablative material to protect the capsule and crew from the intense heat of entry. Soon after the Apollo program, successful Mars Viking Lander missions employed a different and much lighter ablator in more benign entry conditions. The Pioneer-Venus and Galileo Probe missions that followed required yet another ablative system, to manage the extreme heating at those destinations. In the mid 1990’s, as the Science focus returned to Mars, advances in manufacturing, testing and materials technology led to innovative lightweight ablators that enabled comet and asteroid sample return missions and facilitated large lander missions such as MSL and Mars 2020. This talk will review the history of ablators as well as current ablative TPS development that addresses the requirements for future missions to Moon, Mars and beyond.