Metaskinematic Active Skin for Hypersonic Vehicles: Biologically-Inspired Damage Mitigation via Cooperative Micro-Vortex Pasturing

Metaskinematic Active Skin: a bio-inspired, self-healing thermal protection system for hypersonic and re-entry vehicles based on millions of independently actuated hexagonal micro-scales (0.3–0.8 mm). Under localized extreme heat flux (Pre-CRT hotspots), the threatened scale tilts while neighbouring cells counter-tilt, cooperatively generating coherent micro-vortices that “pasture” high-enthalpy plasma away from the damaged region in less than 50 ms. This mechanism prevents cascade failures, reduces local heat flux by 87–94 %, and enables skin lifetimes exceeding 3000 Mach 25 re-entries with only visual inspection maintenance. Combined with Multiflux Theory and the Regimental Quantum Transition (RQT), it definitively eliminates traditional ablative TPS. The concept is fully compatible with the Multiflux Spinning Lenticular Vehicle (MSLV – “Quantum Frisbee”) architecture. Includes conceptual renderings, performance comparison with Starship tiles, and a 2026–2029 technology roadmap.

Keywords (copie e cole exatamente assim no campo Keywords do Zenodo)

hypersonic thermal protection, active skin; self-healing TPS; bio-inspired aerodynamics; shark-skin micro-scales; cooperative micro-vortex; damage mitigation; piezoelectric actuation; Metaskinematic Active Skin; Regimental Quantum Transition; RQT, Multiflux Theory; re-entry vehicle; ablation elimination; cascade failure prevention; graphene-ceramic composite; smart surface; hypersonic materials