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Post-flight Analysis of Mars Science Laboratory Entry Aerothermal Environment and Thermal Protection System ResponseThe Mars Science Laboratory successfully landed on the Martian surface on August 5th, 2012. The rover was protected from the extreme heating environments of atmospheric entry by an ablative heatshield. This Phenolic Impregnated Carbon Ablator heatshield was instrumented with a suite of embedded thermocouples, isotherm sensors, and pressure transducers. The sensors monitored the in-depth ablator response, as well as the surface pressure at discrete locations throughout the hypersonic deceleration. This paper presents a comparison of the flight data with post-entry estimates. An assessment of the aerothermal environments, as well as the in-depth response of the heatshield material is made, and conclusions regarding the overall performance of the ablator at the suite locations are presented.
Document ID
20140005545
Acquisition Source
Ames Research Center
Document Type
Conference Paper
Authors
White, Todd Richard (Engineering Research and Consulting, Inc. Mountain View, CA, United States)
Mahazari, Milad (Georgia Inst. of Tech. Atlanta, GA, United States)
Bose, Deepak (NASA Ames Research Center Moffett Field, CA United States)
Santos, Jose Antonio (Sierra Lobo, Inc. Moffett Field, CA, United States)
Date Acquired
May 12, 2014
Publication Date
June 24, 2013
Subject Category
Spacecraft Design, Testing And Performance
Report/Patent Number
ARC-E-DAA-TN10165
Meeting Information
Meeting: AIAA Thermophysics Conference
Location: San Diego, CA
Country: United States
Start Date: June 24, 2013
End Date: June 27, 2013
Sponsors: American Inst. of Aeronautics and Astronautics
Funding Number(s)
CONTRACT_GRANT: NNA09DB39C
CONTRACT_GRANT: NNA10DE12C
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Public Use Permitted.
Keywords
mars science laboratory
aerothermodynamics
entry descent and landing

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