CIRA has successfully passed the Manufacturing Readiness Review (MRR) for the Separable Aeroshell for Martian discrete-event drag modulation Aerocapture (SAMA) project, receiving official authorization from the European Space Agency (ESA) and prime contractor Thales Alenia Space (JV between Thales 67% and Leonardo 33%) to begin manufacturing the technology demonstrator, to be realized in collaboration with ALI S.p.A. This milestone marks the start of a three-month production phase, which will deliver the system's two core macro-components: the Nose and the Drag Ring.
These elements will be at the center of a crucial test campaign scheduled for the summer of 2026 at CIRA's facilities. The tests aim to verify the flawless operation of the release mechanisms under conditions that closely mimic real-world flight operations. To achieve this level of fidelity, CIRA's experimental setup involves spinning the demonstrator to simulate actual flight dynamics, combined with a custom spring system designed to replicate the aerodynamic loads and accelerations acting on the Drag Ring during the delicate separation phase.
This effort is part of ESA's Terra Novae 2030+ Exploration Strategy, which is evaluating a mission to Mars to demonstrate the effectiveness of aerocapture. This innovative technique simplifies Mars orbit insertion by jettisoning a portion of the thermal shield (the aeroshell) during atmospheric entry, thereby reducing aerodynamic drag and altering the vehicle's ballistic coefficient. Within this ambitious engineering challenge, CIRA plays a leading role, taking charge of both the complete development of the technology demonstrator to reach TRL 4, and the thermo-structural sizing of the Thermal Protection System (TPS) for the future flight vehicle.