Title:
Design of a Novel Hypersonic Inflatable Aerodynamic Decelerator for Mars Entry, Descent, and Landing
Design of a Novel Hypersonic Inflatable Aerodynamic Decelerator for Mars Entry, Descent, and Landing
Author(s)
Skolnik, Nathaniel
Kamezawa, Hiromasa
Li, Lin
Rossman, Grant A.
Sforzo, Brandon
Braun, Robert D.
Kamezawa, Hiromasa
Li, Lin
Rossman, Grant A.
Sforzo, Brandon
Braun, Robert D.
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Abstract
Entry, descent, and landing (EDL) is especially challenging on Mars because the
atmosphere is too thin to provide substantial deceleration, but thick enough to
generate significant heating during the reentry phase. As a result, innovative ideas
are required to enable future high-mass Mars landing missions. One such promising
approach is to use an inflatable aerodynamic decelerator (IAD). Compared with
traditional rigid aeroshells, IADs are made of lightweight, flexible materials that can
be folded into a smaller volume in the rocket payload fairing and inflated prior to
atmospheric entry. Such IADs are able to reduce the ballistic coefficient and peak
heating, providing an opportunity to land at higher surface elevations on Mars.
Currently, NASA Langley Research Center is investigating the development of
Hypersonic Inflatable Aerodynamic Decelerators (HIADs) to enable future large
robotic and human exploration missions. Much of the previous work performed on
HIADs has focused on symmetric shapes that fly through the atmosphere with
ballistic trajectories or trajectories with low lift-to-drag ratios accomplished via CGoffset.
The present investigation assesses the technical feasibility of a novel HIAD
concept that can vary lift-to-drag ratios between 0.2 and 0.5, is aerodynamically
stable between 0.6 km/s and 6.5 km/s, is extensible to aeroshell diameters of 15 to 20
meters, and possesses an approximately smooth outer mold line to avoid localized
heating.
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Date Issued
2017-01
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Text
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Paper
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