heat shield

noun

Definition of heat shield

: a barrier of ablative material to protect a space capsule from heat on its entry into an atmosphere

Examples of heat shield in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The heat shield is a critical piece of hardware, and is the chief way to slow the probe down. — Joe Pappalardo, Popular Mechanics, "Why Mars InSight Will Be a Mission of Firsts," 23 Nov. 2018 The heat shield can’t tilt more than one degree in any direction without risking damage to the rest of the craft. — Brian Resnick, Vox, "NASA is shooting a spaceship at the sun. It might help us solve a huge mystery.," 8 Aug. 2018 If the Soyuz loses its orientation, the capsule could expose its hatch, rather than the heat shield, to temperatures upwards of 3,000 degrees F. That would kill the crew. — Joe Pappalardo, Popular Mechanics, "Ballistic Reentry: How Astronauts Survive a Failed Launch," 11 Oct. 2018 Because they are not protected by the probe’s heat shield, the antennas are constructed from niobium C-103, a high-temperature alloy that can withstand intense heat, the Lab said. — James Rogers, Fox News, "NASA's Parker Solar Probe gets closer to 'touching the Sun'," 6 Sep. 2018 And in 2000, Russia attempted to return the upper stage of a rocket from orbit using an inflatable heat shield. — Loren Grush, The Verge, "How Elon Musk could recover rockets with balloons — just not the party kind," 18 Apr. 2018 Then Insight will turn so its heat shield is pointed dead-on at the atmosphere, which starts about 70 miles over the surface of the planet. — Brian Resnick, Vox, "NASA is landing on Mars for the first time since 2012. You can watch!," 23 Nov. 2018 But not everything on the Parker will be behind the heat shield. — David Grossman, Popular Mechanics, "Why the Sun-Studying Parker Space Probe Won't Melt," 20 July 2018 During the first phase, InSight will free-fall through the atmosphere using a heat shield for protection as the surrounding air slams into the spacecraft, heating it up to temperatures of 2,700 degrees Fahrenheit. — Loren Grush, The Verge, "Watch NASA engineers track the harrowing landing of a spacecraft on Mars today," 26 Nov. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'heat shield.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

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Dictionary Entries near heat shield

heat-shock protein

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Last Updated

23 Feb 2019

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The first known use of heat shield was in 1962

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