Mars 2020 Thermal Protection Systems (TPS)

This is a presentation for the Destination Space 2021 STEM activities leading up to and beyond the landing of the Perseverance Rover on Mars. This presentation will look at the thermal protection systems for the Mars entry vehicle by first showing the overall spacecraft, explaining a little about the mission, describing the harrowing entry and the reason why TPS is required. It will give a little introduction to the materials and how they behave. Finally a little background on the author is presented along with encouragement to look into engineering if students love math and science.