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Cork P50 thermal protection material was characterized under the Earth atmospheric entry conditions in the framework of the in-flight experiment QARMAN. A total of 25 P50 samples were exposed to air plasma ranging the chamber static pressure values of 1500, 4100, 6180, and 20,000 Pa and heat fluxes between 280 and 3250 kW/m$$^2$$ 2 . The sample radius was also varied between 11 and 25 mm radius to investigate the effects of the stagnation line velocity gradient. The experimental results on heat flux, pressure, surface and in-depth temperatures, surface emissivity, swelling and recession rates, and computed boundary layer profiles as well as the mass blowing rates are presented. A material characterization data suite is also provided including thermogravimetric analysis, specific heat, and thermal conductivity. Overall, a wide range of experimental data of Cork P50 material in Earth atmospheric entry conditions is made available to modelers and engineers for improved material response models and heat shield design consolidation.

High conservative safety margins, applied to the design of spacecraft thermal protection systems for planetary entry, need to be reduced for higher efficiency of future space missions. Ground testing of such protection systems is of great importance during the design phase. This study covers a methodology for simulating the complex hypersonic entry aerothermochemistry in a plasma wind tunnel for a given spacecraft geometry without any assumption on axisymmetry or bluntness. A demonstration of this proposed methodology is made on the Qubesat for Aerothermodynamic Research and Measurements on AblatioN, QARMAN mission, which is a rectangular reentry CubeSat with a cork-based ablative thermal protection system in the front unit. The reacting boundary-layer profiles of the hypersonic entry probe compare well with the ones developing at the stagnation region of the plasma test model, defined with the proposed flight-to-ground duplication method.

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