A Coating That Cools and Cuts Costs

To enable low-cost space access for advanced exploration vehicles, researchers from NASA's Ames Research Center invented and patented a protective coating for ceramic materials (PCCM) in 1994. The technology, originally intended to coat the heat shields of the X-33 and X-34 next-generation vehicles for optimum protection during atmospheric reentry, greatly reduces surface temperature of a thermal control structure while it reradiates absorbed energy to a cooler surface or body, thus preventing degradation of the underlying ceramic material.