NASA and ALS Watch Heat Shield Ablation in Real Time

NASA and Lawrence Berkeley Lab's Advanced Light Source used X-ray micro-CT and a GAN algorithm to observe ablative heat shield materials breaking down in real time at up to 900 °C. Materials SLA-561V and SLA-220 degrade differently: cork vaporizes into voids, while silicone elastomer forms branching micro-channels.

• Chamber heating reached 900 °C, the threshold for heat shield breakdown
• X-ray micro-CT captured 3D images of material during ablation
• GAN upscaled fast low-resolution scans into detailed 3D records
• SLA-561V forms voids from cork, SLA-220 forms branching micro-channels