Sierra Space, a commercial space company and defense tech prime that is Building a Platform in Space to Benefit Life on Earth announced a groundbreaking new technology in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The breakthrough development enables exterior spacecraft tiles that can withstand the high temperatures of re-entering Earth’s atmosphere over multiple, frequent missions. This new Thermal Protection System (TPS) was created to meet the needs of a commercial space industry that is moving at a faster pace than previous generations of spaceflight and now requires more missions over shorter periods of time.
The team at Sierra Space and Oak Ridge National Laboratory leveraged more than three decades of experience with NASA’s Space Shuttle program to design the new system. In the past, exterior tiles used on the Space Shuttle were only needed for an average of five missions per year. As we enter the second quarter of the 21st century, increased launch frequency means that heat-protection designs for spacecraft must be stronger. Sierra Space’s Dream Chaser spaceplane, for instance, is built for a minimum of 15 missions and is contracted with NASA for space station resupply missions with a nine-month reprocessing time.
“Today marks a new era of spaceflight safety technology, and it’s going to enable travel to Low Earth Orbit that will eventually rival the frequency of commercial air travel,” said Sierra Space CEO, Tom Vice. “Our patent-pending Thermal Protection System is like nothing ever before created and essential to a near future where space travel becomes routine. Reusability of space vehicles is a key factor in expanding the commercial space industry and to do that we need new technology to keep spacecraft and crew safe.”
The TPS tiles are made of a proprietary composite material that’s as strong as carbon fiber but with the added high-temperature stability of ceramic materials. The composite tiles have low-density thermal protection properties that are vital for insulative protection and stable flight dynamics. Atmospheric re-entry exposes spacecraft to speeds of more than Mach 17 (About 13,000 mph or 21,000 kph) with temperatures reaching higher than 3,100 degrees Fahrenheit (1,704 degrees Celsius).
“Every kid when they’re growing up dreams of being involved in spaceflight in one way or another,” said Greg Larsen, ORNL’s group leader for extreme material environment processes. “To make a new material technology that has the potential to go to space over and over while advancing the U.S. space program is a real thrill. This is a great example of ORNL’s focus on collaborating with industry by applying our deep materials development expertise to real-world industry challenges.”
Sierra Space and Oak Ridge National Laboratory have completed the first development phase of the patent-pending TPS. The next phase includes more testing, which includes subjecting the tiles to testing at NASA’s Arc Jet plasma facility, which simulates the conditions of re-entry to Earth from space with heated gas flow. The second phase also explores using advanced manufacturing techniques to lower the costs of TPS production. The new TPS system is planned to be used on Sierra Space’s Dream Chaser moving forward, including the second Dream Chaser, called Reverence, which is currently in production at the company’s Dream Factory in Colorado.
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