Suborbital Reentry Demonstration of Inflatable Flare-Type Thin-Membrane Aeroshell Using a Sounding Rocket

Yamada, Kazuhiko; Nagata, Yasunori; Abe, Takashi; Suzuki, Kojiro; Imamura, Osamu; Akita, Daisuke

doi:10.2514/1.a32807

Cited by 39 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…The profiles of ballistic and drag coefficients are shown in Fig. 3 [17], where the mass and diameter of the SMAAC is 15.6 kg and 1250 mm, respectively. The ballistic coefficient in the supersonic region is approximately 8.5 kg/m 2 , and it increases in the subsonic region.…”

Section: Smaac Reentry Vehiclementioning

confidence: 99%

“…This mission was a demonstration to clarify the low-ballistic-coefficient flight of a kind of inflatable vehicle during reentry. On August 8, 2012, a suborbital reentry demonstration of the SMAAC inflatable vehicle was successfully performed using a JAXA/ISAS S-310-41 sounding rocket [17][18][19][20]. Figure 1 shows a photograph of the SMAAC before the flight experiment.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The vehicle achieved a maximum velocity of 1320 m/s , Mach number of 4.5, and dynamic pressure of 500 Pa according to Ref. [17]. The temperatures on the back side of the membrane part and the capsule part of the SMAAC vehicle were measured by means of thermocouples and transmitted to a ground base station during the flight.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Aerodynamic Heating Around Flare-Type Membrane Inflatable Vehicle in Suborbital Reentry Demonstration Flight

Takahashi

Yamada

Abe

et al. 2015

Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets

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A demonstration flight of an advanced reentry vehicle was carried out using a sounding rocket. The vehicle was equipped with a flexible (membrane) aeroshell deployed by an inflatable torus structure. Its most remarkable feature was the low ballistic coefficient that enables reduction in aerodynamic heating and deceleration at a high altitude. During the suborbital reentry, temperatures at several locations on a backside of the flexible aeroshell and inside the capsule were measured by means of embedded thermocouples. The aerodynamic heating behavior of the vehicle was investigated using the measured temperature history, in combination with a numerical prediction in which a flow-field simulation of the heating was conducted. In this flow-field simulation, both laminar flow and turbulent flow were assumed, and the deformation of the flexible aeroshell was considered. A thermal model of the capsule and membrane aeroshell was developed, and the heat flux profiles of the vehicle surface during aerodynamic heating were constructed based on the measured temperatures. The measured temperature data were found to be in reasonable agreement with the predicted data if the flow field near the capsule of the vehicle was assumed to be laminar, with a transition to turbulent flow near the membrane aeroshell.

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Section: Smaac Reentry Vehiclementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Aerodynamic Heating Around Flare-Type Membrane Inflatable Vehicle in Suborbital Reentry Demonstration Flight

Takahashi

Yamada

Abe

et al. 2015

Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets

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“…In the supersonic flow regime, the drag coefficient calculated by RG-FaSTAR is predicted to be a constant value of C D = 1.5, similar to the results of the flight test. Yamada et al [16] reported that the drag coefficient profile has an error of approximately 5% in the supersonic regime considering a 1 σ dispersion of the atmospheric density and ambient temperature. The predicted history of the drag coefficient generally shows good agreement with the measured one.…”

Section: Drag Coefficient Historymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As an important milestone in the MAAC project, a reentry demonstration using an S-310-41 sounding rocket (SMAAC: Sounding Rocket Experiment of Membrane Aeroshell for Atmospheric-Entry Capsule) was conducted on August 7, 2012, at the Uchinoura Space Center, Kagoshima, Japan [15][16][17][18][19][20]. This mission was a demonstration to clarify the low-ballisticcoefficient flight of a kind of inflatable vehicle during reentry.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Aerodecelerator Performance of Flare-Type Membrane Inflatable Vehicle in Suborbital Reentry

Takahashi¹,

Ha²,

Oshima³

et al. 2017

Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets

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A flight experiment of an inflatable reentry vehicle, equipped with a thin-membrane aeroshell deployed by an inflatable torus structure, was performed using a JAXA S-310-41 sounding rocket. The drag coefficient history was evaluated by analyzing the acceleration of the vehicle with atmospheric density and temperature using a global reference atmospheric model. The vehicle successfully demonstrated deceleration. During the reentry flight, the position, velocity, and acceleration of the vehicle were obtained by using the Global Positioning System. The experimental drag coefficient had an almost constant value of 1.5 in the supersonic region but decreased to 1.0 in the subsonic region. In the transonic region, a steep decrease of the drag coefficient was confirmed. To study the detailed aerodynamics for the reentry vehicle, flow-field simulations were conducted with computational fluid dynamics techniques. The aerodynamic force acting on the vehicle was investigated with the measured data throughout the supersonic and subsonic regions. In the flow-field simulation, the computed result for the drag coefficient shows reasonable agreement with the experimental one. In addition, a compressible effect in front of the vehicle was seen to appear in the supersonic region and a vortex ring at the rear of the vehicle was formed in the subsonic region.

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Passive deployment demonstration of shape memory alloy-type deployable aeroshell using a hypersonic wind tunnel

Yamada

Akiyama²,

Nagata³

2023

CEAS Space J

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Suborbital Reentry Demonstration of Inflatable Flare-Type Thin-Membrane Aeroshell Using a Sounding Rocket

Cited by 39 publications

References 9 publications

Aerodynamic Heating Around Flare-Type Membrane Inflatable Vehicle in Suborbital Reentry Demonstration Flight

Aerodynamic Heating Around Flare-Type Membrane Inflatable Vehicle in Suborbital Reentry Demonstration Flight

Aerodecelerator Performance of Flare-Type Membrane Inflatable Vehicle in Suborbital Reentry

Passive deployment demonstration of shape memory alloy-type deployable aeroshell using a hypersonic wind tunnel

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