IOD Preparation

In the development process for operational space applications, an In-Orbital Demonstrator mission is a key milestone to demonstrate the performance of the system in operational scenario and bring a technology to TRL 6. In EFESTO, leveraging on validated numerical tools, a consolidated design of an inflatable heatshield for a specific IOD mission will be performed. The goal is to prepare the terrain to demonstrate the feasibility of using this new technology with significant re-entry heating in a future flight (not performed within the project activities planned for this call). In line with the technology roadmap, the flight target will be to test in hypersonic conditions the TPS solution and validate it for future space mission applications. In Europe, a possible candidate launcher could be the MAXUS sounding rocket operated from the Esrange Space Centre (Kiruna, Sweden), which allows reaching altitudes up to 700km with payloads of ~700kg.

As state of the art example, the IRVE-3 mission is identified and will serve as inspiring reference to EFESTO:

• As part of the HIAD program, the Inflatable Re-entry Vehicle Experiment-3 (IRVE-3) was the third in a series of sub-orbital NASA flight tests of inflatable re-entry technology to demonstrate re-entry survivability with relevant heating, and the control system effectiveness for an inflatable re-entry vehicle. The vehicle entered Earth’s atmosphere at Mach 10 and successfully survived the heat and forces of re-entry, splashing down in the Atlantic. With IRVE-3, NASA reached a TRL of 7 on inflatable heatshields.