the apollo heat shield was made of plastic resin.
what was the apollo heat shield made of?
plastic resin
bullet::::- an ablative heat shield consists of a layer of plastic resin, the outer surface of which is heated to a gas, which then carries the heat away by convection. such shields were used on the mercury, gemini, and apollo spacecraft.
heat shield
in 1958, the united states announced project mercury, a series of low earth orbit missions. the mercury seven was selected to pilot them, with a single-person capsule being designed by a team led by maxime faget. the mcdonnell aircraft company won the contract to build mercury. the cone-shaped capsule was in diameter with a blunt-body shape and a heat shield at the base. total capsule length was , including a retrorocket pack strapped over the heat shield. the heaviest capsule had a gross mass of , and was capable of just over one day of orbital flight. a -long launch escape tower was connected to the nose of the capsule at launch, containing a solid-fueled rocket capable of carrying the capsule away from the launch vehicle in case of an emergency. capsules for suborbital flights used a radiative heat shield made of beryllium and were launched with the mercury-redstone launch vehicle. orbital capsules used an ablative heat shield made of fiberglass embedded in an aluminum honeycomb matrix, and were launched with the atlas lv-3b.
space capsule