Performance of Supersonic Parachutes Behind Slender Bodies

[摘要] NASA’s ASPIRE (Advanced Supersonic Parachute Inflation Research Experiments) project isinvestigating the supersonic deployment, inflation and aerodynamics of full-scale disk-gap-band(DGB) parachutes. The first two flight tests were carried out in October 2017 and March 2018, whilea third test is planned for the fall of 2018. In these tests, Mars-relevant conditions are achieved bydeploying the parachutes at high altitudes over Earth using a sounding rocket test platform. As aresult, the parachute is deployed behind a slender body (roughly 1/6-th the diameter of the capsulethat will use this parachute for descent at Mars). Because there is limited flight and experimentaldata for supersonic DGBs behind slender bodies, the development of the parachute aerodynamicmodels was informed by CFD simulations of both the leading body wake and the parachute canopy.This presentation will describe the development of the pre-flight parachute aerodynamic modelsand compare pre-flight predictions with the reconstructed performance of the parachute during theflight tests. Specific attention will be paid to the differences in parachute performance behind bluntand slender bodies.

[发布日期] 2018-11-18

[学科分类] 航空航天科学

[关键词] PARACHUTES;SLENDER BODIES;AERODYNAMIC CHARACTERISTICS;DEPLOYMENT;FLIGHT TESTS;MARS ENVIRONMENT;DESIGN ANALYSIS