The insulation is being designed for a Venus lander. In some sense, it is an enabling technology for a Venus lander, since surely the life expectancy of a mission must be substantially enhanced over the historical Pioneer and Venera probes in order for the mission to be funded. Even so, the materials and techniques developed during this project are potentially useful for a wide range of thermal protection systems (TPS), and could potentially be redesigned for use in applications such as (re-)entry heatshields, both deployable and static.
Thermal protection is also of substantial interest for a host of military applications, primarily including re-entry heatshields, rocket nozzles and internal insulation for solid rocket motor cases.
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