SPORE Entry, Descent, and Landing
Author(s)
Spencer, David A.
Bauer, Nicole
Juneau, Jessica R.
Willingham, Allison
Mandalia, Amit
Kelly, Jenny R.
McClellan, Justin
Advisor(s)
Editor(s)
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Abstract
The Small Probes for Orbital Return of Experiments (SPORE) flight system is designed to
perform atmospheric entry, descent and landing (EDL) in order to return small payloads
from an Earth orbit to the ground for recovery and laboratory analysis. One such capability
that the SPORE system will provide is in-situ flight test data of various Thermal Protection
Systems (TPS), to be used for comparison to ground-based Arcjet test data and analyses.
The following paper summarizes the current design of the SPORE TPS testbed mission and
the various analyses and trade studies performed in order to converge on an entry system
design. In particular, the driving EDL requirements are discussed as well as the nominal
entry state (with dispersions) and trajectory design. An overall description of the entry
vehicle packaging is included, with additional discussion of the parachute selection and
deployment criteria. In addition, the entry vehicle thermal soak-back characterization is
described as well as the re-entry stability analysis. The current mass budget for the entry
system is included.
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Date
2012-01
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Resource Type
Text
Resource Subtype
Paper
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