2024 Volume 2 Article ID: 144
When a sample return capsule re-enters the Earth's atmosphere, a strong shock wave is generated in front of the capsule and it receives severe aerodynamic heating. An ablation method is one of the thermal protection methods to protect the capsule from this heating. In the future, capsules are expected to become larger and re-entry speeds are expected to increase. Therefore, the capsule will be exposed to more significant aerodynamic heating. In this experiment, lightweight porouscarbon materials with controllable density and porosity and resin-impregnated porous-carbon materials were fabricated, and heating experiments using air plasma freejets were conducted. Spectroscopic measurements were made at the tip of test piece and around the tip of that emitted light during the experiments. The change in the apparent temperature value of the test-piece surface due to pyrolysis gas generation and the chemical species of the pyrolysis gases generated were investigated. Based on the spectroscopic results, the apparent temperatures of the test-piece surface of porous-carbon materials and resinimpregnated porous-carbon materials were estimated to be about 2,500 K and 1,600 K, respectively. The chemical species of the pyrolysis gases generated by heating were C2 Swan band systems.
