Thermo-mechanical Design and Plasma Test Verification on PARES CMC Nose Cap

The Payload Retrieval System (PARES) is a payload return capsule foreseen to accommodate and to retrieve orbital payload cargo from the ISS to ground. For up- and download of PARES to ISS the Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) and other vehicles as Progress or HTV are envisaged. One of the key elements of PARES is the TPS and Hot Structure (HS) concept which includes a CMC Nose Cap and a foldable CMC stabilizer. The paper describes the overall concept of PARES and details the development approach mainly dedicated to the Nose Cap. Thereby thermo-mechanical analysis results are presented as well as plasma test results which were generated within pre-development activities to enable an early verification on critical HS concept issues.