Feasibility of Additive Manufacturing for Thermal Protection Systems

Thermal Protection Systems (TPS) use advanced materials to protect vehicles from aerodynamic heating during atmospheric entry. Manufacturing of these composite materials is often very time consuming and labor-intensive. Leveraging the additive manufacturing FDM (Fused Deposition Modeling) process enables NASA to design and manufacture advanced ablative TPS materials while reducing manufacturing time and cost. Since additive manufacturing is an automated process, it ensures part consistency over the entire heat shield area. The purpose for this presentation will be three-fold.
1) Introduce novel low-density ablative materials capable of utilizing additive manufacturing capabilities
2) show feasibility of additively manufacturing TPS coupons using the downselected TPS materials
3) Side by side comparison of high temperature test results for printable paste and state of the art low-density ablators