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Engineers fromNASA’s Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif., and NASA’s Marshall

Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., remove segments of a heat-resistant material called

Avcoat from the surface of the Orion heat shield. Courtesy of NASA.

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The milling machine features a

fixed, rotating structure that enables

researchers to inspect the 5000-lb

heat shield and remove samples of the

ablated material from its surface. The

team is removing the final scorched

squares of ablative material—and the

data-gathering sensors embedded in

many of them—by hand. The sensors,

designed and fabricated at Ames, col-

lected critical entry environment and

thermal protection performance data

during the EFT-1 flight. Once those fi-

nal pieces are removed for analysis,

the milling machine will be used for

a final pass to smooth the denuded

heat shield, a series of 320,000 honey-

comb-like cells covering the entire

surface. Charred blocks, sensors, and

other materials will be shipped to re-

search teams at Ames and other NASA

facilities. Teams who tested and qual-

ified the materials prior to flight will

now analyze the thermal performance.

Data gleaned from the material and

from the heat shield’s behavior during

reentry will help researchers refine

predictive computer models and assist

with development of safer, more cost-

effective ways to design and build these

protection systems.