Pre-heating methods for re-entry spacecraft – workshop

PI: Hermann, Tobias

Department: Engineering Science (DF)

A workshop is proposed to focus on identifying key challenges relating to hypersonic ground testing of heated wind-tunnel models. Pre-heating of sub-scaled models is a key component of replicating the conditions during a real re-entry flight. Using wind tunnel experiments to inform simulation tools is needed to improve current design margins of spacecraft heat shields and destructive atmospheric entry. For heat shields, these design margins lead to exorbitantly heavy vehicles, thus prohibiting space exploration further into our Solar system. In the case of a destructive re-entry, these design margins improve the safety of the population on the ground.

The workshop will consist of a one-day meeting which will be in hybrid format allowing in-person participation as well as virtual participation which enables colleagues to take part from overseas. The event is focussed on bringing the atmospheric entry community  together and identifying key challenges, applications, and fostering a discussion leading to future collaborative projects. The workshop will aim to consolidate current heating methods and explore how these can be applied to new problems or combined to generate a new capability. Even though existing pre-heating methods have been developed with the focus on non-destructive re-entry, there is great potential of using said methods to improve current standards of experiments of destructive entry.

The intention of the workshop is to generate test cases  that can be directly used to inform industry simulation tools which is ensured by including representatives from small to medium enterprises and governmental agencies in this event.