IRS Ground-Testing Facilities: Thermal Protection System Development, Code Validation and Flight Experiment Development

Five plasma wind tunnels (PWK 1 - 5) are in operation for the investigation and qualification of TPS materials. Different plasma sources are developed for generating the high enthalpy plasma flows as they are expected for reentry flights. Exemplary results of measurements for trajectory points of X-38 and the planned EXPERT vehicle are presented. The PWKs and auxiliary facilities such as the IRS black body source and the emissivity measurement facility as well as their different application possibilities are described. Results are shown exemplary such as in-flight measurement technique calibration, emissivity measurements of SiC, investigation of passive-active transition (German research program ASTRA) and heat flux profile simulation for X-38 (TETRA). Within the PYREX-KAT38 development, a miniaturized pyrometric system which was planned to measure the temperatures in the nose structure of the X-38 during reentry, the stagnation point heat flux profile of X-38 was simulated by programming the computer controlled probe platform in the magnetoplasmadynamically driven PWK1. Efforts are being made at the inductively heated PWK 3,

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