Amorim Cork Solutions will supply its P50 cork-based thermal protection material to DRACO, an ESA mission launching in 2027 that will deliberately reenter Earth's atmosphere while collecting data on spacecraft breakup.
DRACO, short for Destructive Reentry Assessment Container Object, carries around 200 sensors and four cameras to record how the spacecraft disintegrates during reentry. The mission will generate data to improve reentry models and support development of safer, more sustainable spacecraft.
At the mission's core sits a 40 centimeter survival capsule designed to endure the reentry process while the rest of the spacecraft breaks apart. The capsule's heat shield uses Amorim P50, a lightweight ablative material selected by the von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics (VKI), which leads the capsule's design, aerothermodynamics, and thermal protection development.
Before flight, a half-scale version of the capsule underwent testing in VKI's plasma flow facilities to reproduce aerothermal conditions expected during atmospheric reentry. The tests evaluated the heat shield and thermal protection design under reentry-like conditions.
"We have extensively tested P50 within the DRACO programme. It is a highly insulating, robust, and predictable ablative material that is readily available on the commercial market," said Dr. Bernd Helber, Research Expert in Aerothermochemistry at VKI.
Amorim P50 previously flew on QARMAN, another VKI experimental reentry spacecraft. The data collected by DRACO will help ESA's Design for Demise approach, which aims to design spacecraft to break up more completely during reentry and reduce surviving debris. The mission supports ESA's Zero Debris approach targeting significant reductions in Earth and lunar orbit debris by 2030.