HeetShield, Inc.’s Next-Gen Thermal Insulations Tested Aboard Rocket Launched in Partnership with NASA’s Flight Opportunity and Small Business Innovative Research Programs

September 03, 2024 at 15:32 PM EDT

Two new insulations developed by HeetShield, Inc., were used in the recent “Breaking Atmosphere” experiment

The team at HeetShield, Inc., is thrilled to announce that two of their innovative next-generation thermal insulations were used as part of a rocket launch experiment. The insulations were featured on a rocket launched to lower earth orbit as part of the “Breaking Atmosphere” project, made possible by NASA’s Flight Opportunity and Small Business Innovative Research programs.

Years of research were conducted by Heetshield, Inc., ahead of the launch. Two thermal insulations developed by their team, Flexible Insulation with Reinforced Aerogel (FIRA) and Opacified Fibrous Insulation (OFI) were exposed to rocket engine exhaust during launch and landing in a test designed to prove the efficacy of these materials in broader applications.

FIRA was originally developed to support the NASA Convective Heating Improvement for Emergency Fire Shelters (CHIEFS) that developed an improved fire shelter for wildland firefighters. The knowledge attained from developing Thermal Protection Systems (TPS) for re-entry vehicles was used to demonstrate a fire shelter that could offer 3 minutes of occupant protection. While current M2002 fire shelters are effective 90% of the time, fires are becoming more extreme due to climate change. Researchers at NASA and USFS collaborated to prevent tragedies such as the one that claimed 19 firefighters at Yarnell Hill in 2013. FIRA embeds low-thermal conductivity aerogel in a matrix of ceramic fibers to produce a thin, flexible barrier to convective heat transfer.

HeetShield’s research on OFI was sponsored by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR) for use on hypersonic vehicles ranging in design from a space plane that can fly from San Francisco to Tokyo in 3 hours to missiles that can protect from hypersonic weapons developed by China or Russia. Flying at speeds over the speed of sound leads to surface temperatures that can exceed 3000F, and is mostly transferred as radiant heat like the heat from the Sun. OFI includes ceramic particles whose size, shape and base material are optimized to block infrared wavelengths of heat, making it much more effective under these extreme conditions.

The recent flight tested TPS for NASA’s Hypersonic Inflatable Aerodynamic Decelerator (HIAD). HIADs are being created by NASA to enhance, and enable, robotic and scientific missions to destinations with atmospheres such as Mars, Venus, and Titan, as well as returning payloads to Earth from low earth orbit. With deployable decelerators, relatively large atmospheric entry vehicles can be designed to fit within a comparatively small vehicle launch fairing. Deployable decelerator technology will enable delivery of an estimated 20 metric tons of payload required to support human exploration of Mars, and will also enable return of large payloads from Low Earth Orbit, like stem cells and semiconductors, as well as launch asset recovery for reduced cost of space access. For human exploration of Mars, it is estimated that a deployable decelerator may have a diameter of 18 meters. HeetShield’s insulations are expected to make the HIAD payload recovery system even more efficient by increasing the available payload volume.

The flight experiment was named “Breaking Atmosphere” by students at BASIS, a Flagstaff K-12 school. Students were invited to suggest names and vote for their favorite name. In addition to the obvious meaning for a re-entry vehicle that returns to Earth by breaking through the atmosphere, the name also refers to HIAD’s methods of safely returning payloads to Earth’s surface using atmospheric braking to slow and control descent.

Learn more about Heetshield, Inc., now by visiting https://heetshield.com/ or by contacting Steve Miller, CEO, at info@heetshield.com.

ABOUT HEETSHIELD, INC.

HeetShield, Inc., was created to commercialize thermal insulation research funded by NASA, the Air Force, USMC, USDA, and NSF. The company licensed existing technologies, developed new materials, and is now focused on creating innovative applications and reducing manufacturing costs. HeetShield graduated from the University of Arizona's Center for Innovation and Flagstaff's NACET/MoonShot incubators. Next, in collaboration with Carbon Utility, HeetShield will demonstrate advanced insulations made from atmospheric carbon, aiming to combat climate change. This STTR project, sponsored by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, will involve work at the University of Houston and Loraine County Community College.

Media Contact
Company Name: HeetShield
Contact Person: Steve Miller, CEO
Email: Send Email
Phone: 928-779-5000
City: FLAGSTAFF
State: ARIZONA
Country: United States
Website: https://heetshield.com/

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HeetShield, Inc.’s Next-Gen Thermal Insulations Tested Aboard Rocket Launched in Partnership with NASA’s Flight Opportunity and Small Business Innovative Research Programs

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