5June 5, 2013 – The Italian team formed by Istec together with the Dept. of Industrial Engineering /Aerospace branch (University of Naples “Federico II) obtained an all-Italian success for a scientific experiment outboard during mission BION-M1 of the Photon capsule.
Recovery of the Photon capsule after landing
Exactly on 19 May 2013, the Russian capsule Photon, after about a 30-day stay in orbit at 575 km altitude, returned to Earth after having completed a series of scientific experiments in the field of biology, physiology, biotechnology and materials science.
Italy has been starring in his own little thanks to the initiative of two centers of excellence
- the Institute of Science and Technology for Ceramics (ISTEC, under the supervision of the physicist Frédéric Monteverde)
- the Aerospace branch of the Department of Industrial Engineering (DII) of the University of Naples “Federico II” (DII, led by Prof. Raffaele Savino)
from whose synergy has been conceived and designed a scientific experiment for the re-entry phase into the Earth’s atmosphere focused on the study of advanced ceramic materials within the class of better known Ultra-High Temperature Ceramics “UHTC” among the scientific community.
With the support of the European Space Agency (ESA) and the collaboration with the Department of Chemical and Microbial Sanitary Safety (IMBP) in Moscow, ISTEC and DII conducted in almost total self-financing the experiment manufacturing two structural UHTC components with function of holder, installed outside of the capsule’s heat shield.
The couple of holders housed biological samples from IMBP and passive sensors of temperature. The latters acted as “in-situ monitoring” sensors for the study and characterization of aero-thermodynamics of UHTC materials during re-entry.
The capsule passed through the Earth’s atmosphere and landed in the Russian region of Orenburg, near the border with Kazakhstan. Just upon landing, the two holders as well as other equipments and control systems linked to on-board and out-board experiments have been recovered.
From an initial visual inspection based on the images and videoclips available, the two holders appear in good status, without obvious surface deterioration notwithstanding the relevant heat load experienced during atmospheric re-entry. The transfer of the UHTC holders to Italy for the post-flight analyses (e.g numerical simulations, microstructural investigation) is underway. Such analyses aim at correlating the most important parameters measured during the re-entry trajectory to the surface modifications of the material.
(inset: an holder before installation)
The present scientific experiment has shown once again that Italy has expertises and capabilities in the design and manufacturing of advanced ceramic materials which own the potential to open a revolutionary new generation of hypersonic aircrafts to exit/entry from space.
