Composite materials like Carbon Fibers Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) are used in the manufacturing of components for satellites or launcher upper stages. Those materials behave similarly to thermal protection ablators hence show a strong resistance when exposed to high enthalpy flows. For instance, Composite Overwrapped Pressure Vessel (COPV) have been shown to survive the harsh atmospheric...
Among various techniques for Design for demise, maximizing the available heat to demisability is one of the complex problems which may require change in shape to increase the local heat flux, change in size to increase peak heat flux or adding additional energy by exothermic reactions. A frontal cavity has been studied in different applications and has been found to manipulate the heat...
The Plasma wind tunnel facilities at IRS have been used for ground testing since the 1980s. The basic techniques for material testing have remained largely unchanged. New developments and a renewed interest in the phenomena affecting and accompanying break-up of derelict satellites and space debris have necessitated the improvement of existing techniques, development of new techniques, or...
The ISL hyperballistic tunnel is a hypersonic ballistic range. This unique facility in Europe [1] has been recommissioned in 2020 for hypersonic free flight and ablation studies. It is a combination of two two-stage light gas guns and of a 21 m long measurement tunnel.
The two light gas guns are used as model accelerators. Three launch tubes are available with calibres of 10 mm, 20 mm and 30...
High-power lasers are increasingly considered for Active Debris Removal and illumination of low-orbit objects, and progress in high-power laser technology will be instrumental to achieve that aim. One of the main bottlenecks of high-power laser technology is the management of the ever-growing thermal load to which the optical elements are subjected. Scaling up their physical size indefinitely...
The atmospheric reentry technologies have not evolved significantly since the early days of space exploration. Mostly they were designed for manned spaceflight applications allowing humans to return safely to Earth in a capsule or shuttle-like vehicle. Those applications have all the drawbacks that return vehicles whose shapes were constrained by launch phase restrictions (cross-section of the...
