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SUMMARY:The physics of spacecraft re-entry
DTSTART:20150928T103000
DTEND:20150928T113000
DTSTAMP:20260511T142820Z
UID:a9dc6baea98ea0972908ea684033ce8c0e507e1d5675bb1b2306e680
CATEGORIES:Conferences - Seminars
DESCRIPTION:Elise Fahy\, University of Queenland\, Brisbane\, Australia\nT
 he successful progression of exploratory space flight from dreams to reali
 ty would not have been achieved without the ability to return the astronau
 ts or scientific payload safely to Earth. A vehicle's thermal protection s
 ystem (TPS) is critical for surviving the extreme velocities\, heat and ra
 diation experienced in the shock layer that surrounds the vehicle during r
 e-entry. Currently\, these systems are designed with excessive safety fact
 ors because the plasma physics and chemistry of radiating shock layers is 
 not fully understood. Excess safety factors on spacecraft mean more TPS we
 ight which could otherwise be used for scientific or human payload\, or re
 moved to reduce cost. To increase knowledge of the extreme conditions expe
 rienced during re-entry\, data is required from flight\, ground testing or
  computational methods. Flights are exceedingly costly\, few in number and
  usually do not carry heat shield instrumentation\, so remote observations
  are required. Ground testing and computational methods need further valid
 ation and verification\, especially from flight data\, to increase confide
 nce in results.\nThe aims of this project are to recreate the flight spect
 ra from a trajectory point on the Hayabusa spacecraft re-entry in expansio
 n tubes and using computational fluid dynamics (CFD). The University of Qu
 eensland expansion tube laboratory is a unique world-class facility that c
 an recreate many aspects of hypervelocity flow\, including plasma radiatio
 n from the shock layer over a scaled Hayabusa model\, for comparison with 
 the rare flight observation data from the Hayabusa re-entry. Further compa
 risons can be performed with advanced CFD for compressible\, reacting flow
 s. Matching flight data will validate ground testing methods and enable a 
 more robust design process\, refining the TPS through results of expansion
  tube experiments and CFD. With many new missions on the horizon\, underst
 anding re-entry processes for optimised vehicle design and mission confide
 nce has never been more important.
LOCATION:PPB 019
STATUS:CONFIRMED
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