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Ed Yeates reporting The Department of Defense wants to prevent damage from the buildup of heat on rockets and spaceships-- the same heat that disintegrated the shuttle Columbia earlier this year.
Teams of researchers have joined forces with Utah State University to launch an unusual payload into space.
A plasma of heat called bowshock forms around the wings and cones of spacecraft as they enter or re-enter the earth's atmosphere.
It found an opening in Columbia's outer skin in February, and brought it down in a fireball.
Critical systems like this which guide and stabilize shuttles, rockets and missiles melted and fried within seconds.
Carl Howlett/USU Space Dynamics Laboratory: "THAT IS PRECISELY WHAT HAPPENED INSIDE THE SHUTTLE. (edit) IT WILL INSTANTLY GO THROUGH THE WIRING THAT IS INSIDE THE SHUTTLE WINGS. THAT WILL DAMAGE THE SHUTTLE'S ABILITY TO MONITOR TEMPERATURE."
Even more - the ship's automated guidance systems - needed for reaction within fractions of a second.
In missiles, bowshock keeps sensors from finding their precision targets.
HOWLETT: "IT BECOMES LIKE BEING INSIDE OF A BONFIRE LOOKING FOR A CANDLE SOMEWHERE ON THE OUTSIDE."
ED YEATES, SCIENCE SPECIALIST: "AS THIS BOWSHOCK BEGINS FORMING ON THE VERY TIP OF THE CONE, WE'RE TALKING ABOUT TEMPERATURES THAT EQUAL OR EXCEED THE TEMPERATURES OF THE SUN."
The surface of the sun, that is, at least 10,000 degrees farenheit.
Researchers want to know more about the physics of this heat.
On June 10th, this rocket took a payload into space - a package assembled by USU and its partners to sense and measure the effects of bowshock.
From it, other researchers may be able to develop new shielding for protection and new systems that can sense trouble before it happens.
The project is called DEBI. It's a five-year, $3.2 million research effort involving the Army, the Navy, Pennsylvania State University, the University of Florida, and USU.
