Design, qualification, manufacturing and integration of IXV Ablative Thermal Protection System

• IXV Ablative TPS protects the spacecraft from reentry harsh aerothermal environment.
• Ablative TPS design was a multidisciplinary program covering all engineering fields.
• Extensive numerical simulation both linear and nonlinear has been carried out.
• Wide-range of tests have been performed to verify and correlate TPS sizing models.
• Manufacturing and integration of 700 parts ablative TPS is made of are described.

In the present paper, all the activities carried out by Avio S.p.A in order to define, qualify, manufacture and integrate the IXV Ablative TPS will be presented.In particular the extensive numerical simulation in both small and full scale testing activities will be overviewed.Wide-ranging testing activity has been carried out in order to verify, confirm and correlate the numerical models used for TPS sizing. Tests ranged from classical thermo-mechanical characterization traction specimens to tests in plasma wind tunnels on dedicated prototypes.Finally manufacturing and integration activities will be described emphasizing technological aspects solved in order to meet the stringent requirements in terms of shape accuracy and integration tolerances.