blog posts Protecting a spacecraft's crew from extreme heat during reentry May 9, 2018 1:30 pm by news@illinois.eduResearch Share on Facebook Tweet Email Huck Beng Chew, left, a professor of aerospace engineering, and Ph.D. candidate Abhilash Harpale work on a model to determine the optimal thickness and composition of heat shield material. Images Aerospace engineering researchers at Illinois created a model to determine the optimal thickness and composition of the material needed in a spacecraft's heat shield. Share on Facebook Tweet Email