NASA installs heat shield on first private spacecraft bound for Venus
Led by Rocket Lab of Long Beach, California, and their partners at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Rocket Lab's Venus mission will be the first private mission to the planet.
NASA's role is to help the commercial space endeavor succeed by providing expertise in thermal protection of small spacecraft. Invented at Ames, NASA's Heatshield for Extreme Entry Environment Technology (HEEET)—the brown, textured material covering the bottom of the capsule in this photo—is a woven heat shield designed to protect spacecraft from temperatures up to 4,500 degrees Fahrenheit. The probe will deploy from Rocket Lab's Photon spacecraft bus, taking measurements as it descends through the planet's atmosphere.
Teams at Ames work with private companies, like Rocket Lab, to turn NASA materials into solutions such as the heat shield tailor-made for this spacecraft destined for Venus, supporting the growth of the new space economy.
Provided by NASA