Mars 2020 Thermal Protection Systems Sizing and Development

The Mars 2020 spacecraft delivering the Perseverance Rover to Mars was planned to be a build-to-print repeat of the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) spacecraft that delivered the Curiosity Rover to Mars in 2012. The 2020 mission would deliver a slightly higher mass at a lower entry velocity, so the mission designers were comfortable with the cost saving approach of using an already proven design. The approach used in sizing the thermal protection systems (TPS) for the various components of the MSL spacecraft included convective heating and shock layer radiation (a small contributor) on the heatshield and only convective heating on all of the aft body parts. At the time, it was assumed that the contribution of radiation from the shock layer and the wake was negligible on the aft body at Mars. In the time since the MSL spacecraft was designed, in light of new data and analysis, NASA realized the significance of radiative heating in the aftbody on vehicles entering Mars, beginning with the InSight entry. New analyses showed that the radiant heat fluxes on aft body components at Mars were of the same order or even larger than predicted convective heat fluxes. The Mars 2020 team was tasked with showing that the TPS thicknesses designed for MSL with only convective heating would survive the Mars 2020 convective plus radiative heat flux environments. Luckily, many of the MSL aft body components were sized using an extra conservative approach, often sizing for the worst environment at the lightest, thinnest structure, even though the environments and structures were not co-located. The Mars 2020 team had to more accurately evaluate the environments and structures to show that the design would close