Welsh firm develops reusable heat shield for re-enty

[ursaminortaur]

A Welsh firm has developed a re-usable fold away heat shield for atmospheric re-entry.

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-65592872

A Welsh space start-up has developed a novel heatshield to enable it to re-use satellites brought back to Earth.

It's a large flexible sheet that can be folded tightly for launch but then spring out like a shuttlecock to protect a spacecraft when it returns.

Cardiff-based Space Forge envisions flying a fleet of "mini factories" in orbit to manufacture high-value, high-fidelity materials and components.

These would be used in fields such as electronics and pharmaceuticals.

But the Space Forge satellites and their products will need to survive the intense heat of falling back through the atmosphere at the end of a mission.

The company's solution is a mechanism it's calling Pridwen after the shield said to have been carried by legendary King Arthur.
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Its large size is designed to effectively radiate away heat energy in excess of a thousand degrees, but its foldability means it can be easily stowed to fit inside a rocket.

Crucially, Pridwen is intended to be flown time and time again.

This is unusual for traditional heatshield systems.

They tend to use materials that erode, or ablate, as they come through the atmosphere and must be replaced.

Some systems are fully reusable - like the silica tiles on the old US space shuttle - but they can be quite fragile and complex to handle.

Pridwen is central to the Space Forge business model. If the Cardiff firm's idea of making things in orbit is to succeed it will need to fly its mini-factories (each about the size of a microwave oven) multiple times. Otherwise, the costs won't add up.

[Tedx]

And I read that in Shetland they're planning to fuel a rocket with 100% renewable energy (hydrogen/oxygen produced with wind power)

Things they are a changin'!