Multi-dimensional ablation and thermal response program for re-entry analysis

The development of a new methodology to estimate the ablative Thermal Protection System (TPS) behaviour and the external flux conditions during the re-entry phase of a space mission is described in this paper. Reduced-order codes are used to investigate both the flux aerodynamics and the ablative material pyrolysis phenomenon. The re-entry of the Stardust sample return capsule is analysed and the results are compared to high-fidelity coupled programs. The aim of the study is to prove that three-dimensional estimations of the external heat flux along the capsule, TPS external temperature and surface recession can be evaluated with reduced-order codes