Advanced European Re-Entry System Based on Inflatable Heat Shields EFESTO project overview: preliminary IOD mission and system definition

The European Union H2020 EFESTO project is coordinated by DEIMOS Space with the end goals of improving the European TRL of Inflatable Heat Shields for re-entry vehicles from 3 to 4/5 and pave the way to an In-Orbit Demonstration (IOD) that can further raise the TRL to 6. This paper provides a synthesis of the EFESTO design and experimental achievements and sums up the Inflatable Heatshield IOD mission and system design which is the final step of the EFESTO project. First, the initial IOD design resulted from a dedicated concurrent engineering analysis is introduced. The session core consisted of trading-off on the system configuration options derived from the sequential design and testing campaigns, including the Inflatable Structure (IS) and Flexible Thermal Protection Systems (F-TPS) key subsystems, but also on additional aspects such as launcher and landing site selection. The driving rationale here corresponded to the maximization of the scientific return of the experiment while also taking into account feasibility considerations related to the current European Space Sector capabilities and market opportunities. The subsequent design phase focused instead on harmonizing and the mission and system definition and extending it with a preliminary assessment of the IOD system realization and mission implementation. This final output represents a unique contribution of the EFESTO project to the European know-how in inflatable heatshield technology and promotes the relevance of the EFESTO Consortium in the frame of a European re-entry technology roadmap.