The heat shield features the same ablative material called Avcoat used in Apollo lunar outings and return-to-Earth missions. However, the building process has changed, according to Lockheed Martin that fashioned Orion’s thermal protection system.
"Instead of having workers fill 300,000 honeycomb cells one by one with ablative material, then heat-cure the material and machine it to the proper shape, the team now manufactures Avcoat blocks – just fewer than 200 – that are pre-machined to fit into their positions and bonded in place on the heat shield’s carbon fiber skin," the aerospace firm’s website explains. That process is a timesaver in putting on the Avcoat – about a quarter of the time.
Speaking October 29 at the Annual Meeting of the Lunar Exploration Analysis Group being held in Houston, Texas, Glaze did not say what root cause was uncovered.
However, Glaze said that additional testing is ongoing before any final determination is made. That testing will conclude by the end of November, then provided to NASA chief, Bill Nelson, for a final decision.
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