European Consortium receives euro 15M for inflatable heat shield development

A European consortium, led by Spanish mission and system integrator Elecnor Deimos (“Deimos”), is working to develop an inflatable heat shield (IHS) for recovering rocket stages from space. This system could also protect cargo during re-entry and may be used for Mars missions.

ICARUS (“Inflatable Concept Aeroshell for the Recovery of a re-Usable launcher Stage”) has received euro 10 million in funding from the European Commission (EC) under the Horizon Europe programme (grant nr. 101134997). This project follows EFESTO-1 ( euro 3 million) and EFESTO-2 ( euro 2 million), funded by Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe, respectively. ICARUS consists of three phases.

In the first phase, the consortium will complete the mission and system design and mature key technologies on the ground. The second phase involves a flight test on a sounding rocket with an IHS demonstrator in hypersonic conditions. The IHS will be approximately 50 cm in diameter inside the rocket and will inflate to about 3 m. A commercial full-scale version could inflate to a diameter of 10 m.

The third phase involves post-flight analysis of data and information to understand spacecraft behavior, evaluate technology performance, and verify simulation models.

The ICARUS project, estimated to take about four years, is set to kick off in June 2024, with a demonstrator test expected in 2028.

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