PWT - Plasma Wind Tunnel
Sending a space vehicle into orbit is not easy, nor is it to bring it back to Earth. Coming into contact with the atmosphere at orbital speed, approximately 28,000 kilometers per hour, overheats the surfaces, which must be protected with special materials.
The SCIROCCO Plasma Wind Tunnel (PWT) was built in 2001 in collaboration with the European Space Agency (ESA) as a special wind tunnel capable of simulating the thermal conditions of space vehicles re-entering from low Earth or interplanetary orbits (from the Moon or Mars), thereby improving flight safety in this very sensitive phase.
The facility is typically focused on the development and qualification of thermal protection systems for aerospace use. Electric arc heaters are used to generate high air temperatures up to 10,000 °C.
The dimensions of the test chamber, the 70MW electric arc, the size of the jet and the level of automation make SCIROCCO the largest and most advanced plasma tunnel in the world.
