Orion TPS: back to Avcoat

[docm]

Sounds like they've chosen Apollo's Avcoat over PICA for its TPS -

Link....

NASA Selects Material For Orion Spacecraft Heat Shield

ScienceDaily (Apr. 10, 2009) — NASA has chosen the material for a heat shield that will protect a new generation of space explorers when they return from the moon. After extensive study, NASA has selected the Avcoat ablator system for the Orion crew module.
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To protect the spacecraft and its crew from such severe conditions, the Orion Project Office at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston identified a team to develop the thermal protection system, or TPS, heat shield. For more than three years, NASA's Orion Thermal Protection System Advanced Development Project considered eight different candidate materials, including the two final candidates, Avcoat and Phenolic Impregnated Carbon Ablator, or PICA, both of which have proven successful in previous space missions.
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Ames led the study in cooperation with experts from across the agency. Engineers performed rigorous thermal, structural and environmental testing on both candidate materials. The team then compared the materials based on mass, thermal and structural performance, life cycle costs, manufacturability, reliability and certification challenges. NASA, working with Orion prime contractor Lockheed Martin, recommended Avcoat as the more robust, reliable and mature system.

"The biggest challenge with Avcoat has been reviving the technology to manufacture the material such that its performance is similar to what was demonstrated during the Apollo missions," said John Kowal, Orion's thermal protection system manager at Johnson. "Once that had been accomplished, the system evaluations clearly indicated that Avcoat was the preferred system."

In partnership with the material subcontractor, Textron Defense Systems of Wilmington, Mass., Lockheed Martin will continue development of the material for Orion. While Avcoat was selected as the better of the two candidates, more research is needed to integrate it completely into Orion's design.

 

[annodomini2]

Logical from an accountants point of view, but as has been stated, is it going to be more expensive to revive the old system?

Additionally I thought the main reason for moving away from this type of system was reusability?

I'm sure that the perspective of the technology development of the Ares rocket has been discussed at length in one of the other threads, but still can't help thinking that nasa is taking a significant step backwards (technologically) with this approach.