Prototype heat shield for NASA Orion capsule arrives at Kennedy

William Atkins
Friday, 29 February 2008 20:52

Science - Space

The last use for PICA was used for NASA’s Stardust mission in which the space probe rendezvoused near comet Wild 2 and its coma, took samples, and returned the samples back to Earth (on January 15, 2006) using a PICA heat shield to safely return the comet samples to NASA scientists. Only one piece of heat shield was used for Stardust.

The PICA material used for the Stardust probe worked so well, that NASA decided to continue using it for the heat shield for Orion.

To see the new Orion heat shield and to read more about the shield, please go to the NASA article “Keeping it Cool."

Once the Orion space capsule has finished its mission, the heat shield will not be re-used. Because of this fact, the heat shield for Orion is not as complex as the shuttle’s system.

In fact, about 24,000 tiles are used to protect the space shuttle. The Orion will only need, as said earlier, about 200 pieces.

Boeing Advanced Systems built the developmental heat shield, based on an award from the NASA Ames Research Center (California). The PICA material is made by Fiber Materials, Inc., based in Biddeford, Maine.

For additional information on the heat shield and Boeing's work on it, go to Space-Travel.com’s article “Boeing Completes Prototype Heat Shield For NASA Orion Spacecraft."