Breatheable Ablator Concept for Extended Flight/Maneuvering Navy Strategic Reentry Bodies

The proposed program will develop a breathable ablator concept for application to Navy extended flight or maneuverable reentry vehicles. The breathable ablator concept will consist of a high-density, carbon-carbon outer shell over a charring ablator. This material configuration provides a greater resistance to ablation over longer flight times, where conventional materials would typically burn through, while utilizing the known insulative performance of charring ablators. A stack-up configuration of these materials will be developed in this program to allow the charring ablator to breathe during reentry through the carbon-carbon shell. A Test specimen configuration will be designed to integrate with the current Navy arc testing program, as well as a series of test conditions to evaluate these extended flight scenarios. Finally, Phase I will produce a plan for Phase II that will evaluate the thermomechanical properties of these breathable ablator materials and develop additional concepts to verify performance levels.