F-1501 Research on Atmospheric Reentry Thermal Protection Structures

Development of durable and efficient thermal protection systems against the reentry heating environments is one of the most important issues to realize the practical reusable launch vehicles in future. In order to prepare the heat shield material development, research on evaluation methods regarding the erosion rate and aerodynamic heating characteristics are being conducted using the special ground facilities. Some of the recent activities and future research directions are discussed in this report.