NASA to test IRVE-3 inflatable reentry system
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Inflation sequence for IREV3 test vehicle once delivered into space (Image: NASA)
Inflated IREV3 test vehicle awaiting reentry into Earth's atmosphere (Image: NASA)
Plasma stage during IREV3 reentry into Earth's atmosphere (Image: NASA)
IREV3 inflatable reentry test vehicle being subjected to reentry thermal and dynamic conditions (Photo: NASA)
Internal structure of an inflatable reentry vehicle - the surface shown is normally enclosed within a thermal protection system blanket (Photo: NASA)
Black Brant sounding rocket at launch (Photo: NASA)
NASA inflatable reentry vehicle during plasma phase of Mars landing (Image: NASA)
IREV3 inflatable reentry test vehicle being inspected following inflation in the NASA's Transsonic Dynamics Tunnel (Photo: NASA/Sean Smith)
Cutaway image of 3-meter diameter IREV3 inflatable reentry test vehicle following inflation (Image: NASA)
Inflation sequence for the IREV3 inflatable reentry test vehicle (Image: NASA/AMA)
Artist's conception of a next-generation inflatable reentry vehicle, the High Energy Atmospheric Reentry Test (HEART), designed from return of payloads from the International Space Station (Image: NASA)
Black Brant sounding rocket just after launch (Photo: NASA/Sean Smith)
Artist's conception of the ill-fated General Dynamics MOOSE individual reentry system (Image: NASA)
Article Summary
Your spacecraft is falling from the skies at an initial speed of Mach 25. Your reentry heat shield, that has to survive a 7,800 degrees Celsius (14,072° F) plasma shock, is a finely tuned hi-tech amalgam of refractory metals and carbides and reinforced carbon-carbon ablation materials. Care to replace your mighty heat shield with a balloon? Not likely! But that is exactly what NASA is considering.
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