\n<\/p>\n
According to the NASA engineers, Orion\u2019s heatshield was not porous enough. When it got hot, the shield released gas, and if those gases couldn\u2019t filter to the surface, they built up pressure until the shield cracked. But Artemis II could avoid the kind of heating that led to this problem by flying a steeper path on reentry. With that change, the engineers said, Orion could fly as-is.<\/p>\n
At first, some voices outside of NASA\u00a0warned that this plan was not enough, including multiple former astronauts. Hill argues these critics were not working with all the information, however. The heatshield situation is so technically complex, he says, it took his team of experts weeks to understand it fully, even with NASA engineers helping them. This January, two concerned\u00a0former astronauts met with Hill\u2019s review team and agency engineers to discuss NASA\u2019s solution together, and afterward appeared to accept the decision to fly the heatshield.<\/p>\n
Francesco Panerai, an assistant professor of aerospace engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, came to the same conclusion. Panerai has worked on heat protection at NASA in the past, and he was initially surprised to see the heatshield had failed so visibly. But after NASA offered its explanation, his surprise was \u201csmoothed out.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s what the data say,\u201d he explained. \u201cIt can be flown safe, within acceptable risks.\u201d<\/p>\n
Future missions, including Artemis III, should not have this issue with their heatshields. In the meantime, NASA does not expect it to pose a problem for the Artemis II astronauts.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n