Ciprian Dumitrache, Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, has been awarded $750,000 through the NASA Early Career Faculty program to develop laser-based measurements and models that could help improve thermal protection systems for future Mars missions. That’s because the rate of ablation, or loss of material, impacts how thick the heat shield needs to be. Today, heat shields are designed with large safety margins because the environment around an ablating heat shield is extremely difficult to measure. Our goal is to provide the data needed to design thermal protection systems with greater confidence” said Dumitrache. Postdoctoral researcher Mozhdeh Hooshyar will use the measurements to help develop models of heat shield ablation.