Magnetic Shielding for atmospheric (re-)entry, with Andrea Lani

Abstract

(Re-)entry represents one of the most critical phases for space exploration missions. The safety of the expensive payload and/or human crew strongly depends on the spacecraft survival to the harsh conditions which are experienced during the hypersonic descent into the target planetary atmosphere, involving high thermal loads on the vehicle surface. In addition, at the highest speeds, the surrounding gas ionizes forming a plasma sheath which can prevent radio signals to pass through, leading to communication blackout which can last for minutes, as in the case of the 4.5 minutes during the famous Apollo 13 re-entry. While previously confined solely to Sci-Fi movies, magnetic shielding can now be seriously proposed and technologically pursued as a potential game-changer for tackling all these issues and for contributing to establish a safer and possibly more cost-effective era for space flight. To this end, this presentation introduces MEESST (MHD Enhanced Entry System for Space Transportation), an international project that has developed and demonstrated the first magnetic shielding prototype for re-entry based on high-temperature superconductors (HTS), aiming at actively mitigating both high surface heating and communication blackouts. MEESST has been funded under the Pathfinder program of the European Innovation Council (EIC) and has involved 30+ scientists/engineer from 10 organizations (of which 4 SMEs) in 6 countries. The project has involved a combination of numerical modelling of plasma flows and radio communication blackout, design/assembly/testing of a cryocooled probe integrating a HTS magnet, and experimental measurements in high-enthalpy plasma wind-tunnels (i.e. the PWK1 arc-jet facility at the Institute for Space Systems in Stuttgart and the Plasmatron at the Von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics in Belgium). The vision, methodology, main results and achievements of MEESST will be presented, together with a roadmap towards consolidating and establishing this technology as a disruptive solution to empower future space missions.

A short bio

Dr. Andrea Lani (Ph.D. in Engineering Sciences, MSc in aerospace engineering) is research/team manager at KU Leuven’s Center for mathematical Plasma Astrophysics, AIAA member, co-author of 100+ scientific papers and previously senior researcher at Von Karman Institute, postdoc at NASA/Stanford Center for Turbulence Research and NATO Science & Technology technical member. Since 20+ years he has lead the development of models/software to simulate hypersonic flows around space vehicles and space weather as co-designer of the COOLFluiD (Computational Object-Oriented Libraries for Fluid Dynamics) and ESA VSWMC (Virtual Space Weather Modelling Center) platforms. He has been the PI of MEESST, a large EU project (10 organizations) developing the first magnetic shielding demonstrator for space re-entry.

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