Given that the mission scenarios of several potential future European
space projects will require spacecraft entries into the atmospheres of
various planetary bodies, including Earth, a number of advanced heat-
shield technologies are currently under investigation. Besides the col
d-structure option using materials such as beryllium, SEP has been dev
eloping a very promising concept using a hot structure of carbon/carbo
n or carbon/silicon-carbide. Depending on the particular mission requi
rements, this hot structure can be protected from extreme heat fluxes
by an additional ablative layer. This modular approach, which allows t
he thermal protection system's performance to be tailored to the exact
needs of the mission, forms the basis of the Sepcore(R) concept (Fig,
1).