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Supersonic Retropropulsion Technology Development in NASA's Entry, Descent, and Landing ProjectNASA's Entry, Descent, and Landing (EDL) space technology roadmap calls for new technologies to achieve human exploration of Mars in the coming decades [1]. One of those technologies, termed Supersonic Retropropulsion (SRP), involves initiation of propulsive deceleration at supersonic Mach numbers. The potential benefits afforded by SRP to improve payload mass and landing precision make the technology attractive for future EDL missions. NASA's EDL project spent two years advancing the technological maturity of SRP for Mars exploration [2-15]. This paper summarizes the technical accomplishments from the project and highlights challenges and recommendations for future SRP technology development programs. These challenges include: developing sufficiently large SRP engines for use on human-scale entry systems; testing and computationally modelling complex and unsteady SRP fluid dynamics; understanding the effects of SRP on entry vehicle stability and controllability; and demonstrating sub-scale SRP entry systems in Earth's atmosphere.
Document ID
20120014589
Acquisition Source
Langley Research Center
Document Type
Conference Paper
Authors
Edquist, Karl T. (NASA Langley Research Center Hampton, VA, United States)
Berry, Scott A. (NASA Langley Research Center Hampton, VA, United States)
Rhode, Matthew N. (NASA Langley Research Center Hampton, VA, United States)
Kelb, Bil (NASA Langley Research Center Hampton, VA, United States)
Korzun, Ashley (NASA Langley Research Center Hampton, VA, United States)
Dyakonov, Artem A. (NASA Langley Research Center Hampton, VA, United States)
Zarchi, Kerry A. (NASA Ames Research Center Moffett Field, CA, United States)
Schauerhamer, Daniel G. (Jacobs Technology, Inc. Houston, TX, United States)
Post, Ethan A. (Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA, United States)
Date Acquired
August 26, 2013
Publication Date
June 18, 2012
Subject Category
Spacecraft Propulsion And Power
Report/Patent Number
NF1676L-15052
Meeting Information
Meeting: 9th International Planetary Probe Workshop
Location: Toulouse
Country: France
Start Date: June 18, 2012
End Date: June 22, 2012
Funding Number(s)
WBS: WBS 318867.03.04.07
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Public Use Permitted.

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