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During a media talk earlier today, officials from NASA shared updates from the Artemis 1 flight as they explained results from the data analysis from the spacecraft and the way forward with the Artemis 2 mission. The Artemis 1 took off from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida last year to test the Orion spacecraft and the SLS rocket for a crewed mission expected to take place next year. It included a crucial test of the heat shield on the spaceship, which had not been fully tested on Earth due to inadequate equipment. NASA's program manager for Orion, Mr. Howard Hu, explained that his agency has discovered some variance in the heat shield performance with more material burning off than predicted during simulation.

Airbus & ESA Will Test Faulty Switches On Orion Later This Month

NASA is currently analyzing each block of the heat shield which behaved unexpectedly as some of its material peeled off instead of ablating. The heat shield test was one of the major flight objectives of the Artemis 1 mission since facilities that can simulate the extreme temperatures for the full structure are not present on Earth.

NASA's Orion program manager Mr. Howard Hu explained that some aspects of the heat shield's performance do not match simulations run on the ground. The structure comprises 186 blocks and is a new design upgrade from a monolithic (or single-piece) design that was present in Orion's Exploration Flight 1 (EFT-1) test in 2014 that flew two orbits around Earth. The upgrades were made after the EFT-1 test revealed that the previous heat shield structure would be insufficiently strong to withstand higher re-entry temperatures and the harsh, cold environment of space during a lunar journey.

According to Mr. Hu:

Another event of interest is during, when we returned the crew module and inspected the heat shield, we observed there were more variations across the heat shield than we expected. Some of the expected char materials that we would expect coming back home ablated away differently than what our computer model and what our ground testing predicted. So we had more liberation of the char material during reentry before we landed than we had expected. So right now, we're working very hard on investigating, taking data that we collected from the images from, and the videos, from the reentry, correlating that with the heat sensors, the heat shield sensors that we had on board.

The heat shield for NASA's Artemis 2 mission at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida in June 2020. Image: NASA

And then also, of course, taking a look at our computer models and looking at how we can understand that phenomenon we experience on re-entry. We do have a dedicated investigation going on with detailed analysis. We have extracted some samples from the heat shield, which we're doing x-rays against. We are also understanding how much virgin, or remaining AVCOAT, was remaining on the heat shield and was significant still remaining so that was really good. But overall, there's a lot of work to be done in this investigation going forward. We are just starting that effort as we just gotten together all those pieces of information, those samples, the videos, images and the data from the spacecraft itself and correlated them together. And now we're assessing that data and moving forward with that assessment.

Orion's heat shield is made from a polymer resin (AVOCAT) that is cut into smaller blocks that are fixed on a titanium and carbon fiber structure. Since there are gaps between these blocks, technicians measure the gaps between the blocks and fill them with adhesive. The heat shield's ablative design makes it generate gas through decomposition during atmospheric reentry, which then diverts the heat away from the spacecraft. At the same time, some portion of the heat shield is also burned away.

Mr. Hu added:

So you can imagine you know we have [an] ablative heat shield so we expect the material to ablate. And so part of that heating to 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit that you encounter on a reentry up to that temperature, you're gonna see a charring of that material. Kind of what you do when you barbeque yourself, like that. So that's expected to happen. That was planned. Now what normally happens as you get charring you'll have losses through a chemical reaction. Some of it we're seeing as a larger like, more of a little pieces that would, are coming off, versus being ablated. And I think that's one of the things that was a little bit unexpected as we returned back from the Moon. And that's we're going through the data and looking at what we saw visually, and what our sensors told us relative to temperatures and the profile of those temperatures that we experience on re-entry.

The Orion spacecraft during its journey around the Moon in December 2022. Image: NASA

During its journey around the Moon, Orion also faced some problems with its switches that are responsible for sending power from the solar panels to different systems such as avionics and thrusters. These switches tripped without any command during the journey, and Mr. Hu explained that the European Space Agency (ESA) and Airbus will test the system later this month to investigate if any noise is causing the issue. The ESA and Airbus supplied the service module for Orion, and the faulty switches are located on this portion of the spacecraft.

SpaceX's Starship lunar lander also came under discussion, with NASA officials highlighting that the company has to demonstrate several milestones. These include reducing the risk of transferring super cold propellant in space from its fuel depot to the spacecraft by launching some missions.