Umbrella-Like Heat Shield to Help NASA Deliver Bigger Cargo to Deep Space

NASA’  s Adaptable Deployable Entry Placement Technology (ADEPT) is a foldable device that opens like an umbrella to make a round, rigid heat shield, called an aeroshell. This game-changing technology could squeeze a heat shield into a rocket with a diameter larger than the rocket itself. The design may someday deliver much larger payloads to planetary surfaces than is currently possible.

Transcript

00:00:01 NASA's new spacecraft heat shield design opens like an umbrella. It's called Adaptable, Deployable Entry Placement Technology or ADEPT. During its first suborbital flight, ADPET will deploy above Earth's atmosphere and test how the new technology performs throughout re-entry, descent, and landing. ADEPT was developed at NASA's Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley as a game-changing technology.

00:00:39 It uses a flexible, multi-layer woven carbon fabric that opens into a rigid heat shield when deployed. Like an umbrella, larger versions of ADEPT could be stored compactly in today's rockets. ADEPT could make it possible to send larger missions to Venus, Mars or Titan, as well as bring samples back to Earth. (Music)