Hypervelocity vehicles

The author gratefully acknowledges the Air Force Office of Scientific Research for their primary support of this work studying the interactions of ions with hypervelocity vehicles. The National Science Foundation and the Alfred R Sloan Foundation are also acknowledged for their support of the author s general research in ion/surface chemistry. 

Progress in aeronautics and astronautics within the past decades has been remarkable because people have learned to master the difficult feat of hypervelocity flight. A variety of manned and unmanned aircraft have been developed for faster transportation from one point on earth to another. Similarly, aerospace vehicles have been constructed for further exploration of the vast depths of space and the neighboring planets in the solar system. 

Ablative systems are not limited by the heating rate or environmental temperature, but rather by the total heat load. In spite of this limitation, however, the versatility of ablation has permitted it to be used on various hypervelocity atmospheric vehicles. No single, universally acceptable ablative material has been developed. Nevertheless, the interdisciplinary efforts of materials scientists and engineers have resulted in obtaining a wide variety of ablative compositions and constructions. These thermally protective materials have been arbitrarily categorized by their matrix composition, and typical materials are given in Table 2-9. 

Robertson N. Hypervelocity impact simulation of impact on a space vehicle shielding structure. In Royal Aero. Soc. Conference on Impact and Damage Tolerance in Composite Materials, London 2012. 

The heating rate temperature of an ablative system is no limit. The total heat load limits it. Even with this limit the versatility of ablation has permitted it to be used on hypervelocity atmospheric vehicles. 

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