Development of High and Low Density Ablators for DASH-II and Future Reentry Missions

Abstract

DASH-II is a technological demonstrative mission for an atmospheric reentry system with hyperbolic velocity. The main objective of the mission is motivated by developing and demonstrating reentry technologies, among which the thermal protection is one of the foundational reentry technologies associated with future unmanned/manned lunar and planetary explorations. The present paper describes the DASH-II mission overview and recent development study on ablator material. High density ablator for use in the extremely high heat flux environment up to 20 MW/m² has been developed together with super lightweight ablator for the future reentry missions.