Idea Balloons and Parachutes

[Graham2001]

A long time ago Kev Shanow made a [ame=http://www.orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=670]hot air balloon for orbiter[/ame], which is quite fun, but has never been updated since Orbiter 2003.

More recently I found several documents relating to NASA's tests of various re-entry parachutes for what became the Viking program. They suspended a model entry vehicle from a balloon and then released the vehicle at an altitude of 40,000m to allow the parachute to be tested. This might prove to be an interesting add-on for Orbiter.

See:

1. Flight test of a 15-foot-diameter (4.6-meter) 120 deg conical spacecraft simulating parachute deployment in a Mars atmosphere

2. Performance of a 16.6-meter-diameter cross parachute in a simulated Martian environment (Film)

3. Performance of a 16.6-meter-diameter modified ringsail parachute in a simulated Martian environment (Film)

4. Performance of a 19.7 meter diameter disk gap band parachute in a simulated Martian environment (Film)

5. Inflation and performance of three parachute configurations from supersonic flight tests in a low-density environment

Note: There were a number of sounding rocket based tests in the same series which I am currently trying to run down.

 

[Bloodworth]

Actually, we are going to need to come up with a baloon (blimp) working in 2010 for the mars mission.

 

[garyw]

I've been using whiteknight and either inbuilt parachutes (in the case of UCGO) or universal parachute (for most others). Interestingly enough this technique helped uncover a bug in UCGO's parachute handling.

 

[Graham2001]

Here is another sounding rocket test, may be connected to Viking and quite possibly the best way to test Orbiter 2010's modelling.

High altitude flight test of a disk gap band parachute deployed behind a bluff body at a Mach number of 2.69

And details of the actual parachute tests for Viking, which used a similar balloon system to the one described in the documents in the OP.

1. Flight tests of Viking parachute system in three Mach number regimes. 1: Vehicle description, test operations, and performance

2. Flight tests of Viking parachute system in three Mach number regimes. 2: Parachute test results

 

[Blacklight]

I love this idea. Maybe also add in those types of balloons that they theoretically want to use for exploration that inflate when in the sun and slowly deflate and land when in darkness. Maybe add a camera module to it so it can take screenshots as it blows around.

 

[Graham2001]

I love this idea. Maybe also add in those types of balloons that they theoretically want to use for exploration that inflate when in the sun and slowly deflate and land when in darkness. Maybe add a camera module to it so it can take screenshots as it blows around.

That does sound like a good idea, I've recently found some information on Ballute testing that NASA carried out as part of the same parachute test series that I linked to in the OP.

It looks like they had more problems with it than with the parachutes, as the linked footage that goes with the report I'm linking to shows, I've also added link to online footage of the parachute tests to the OP.

Flight Test Results from Supersonic Deployment of an 18 Foot Diameter (5.49) Towed Ballute Decelerator (Film)

---------- Post added 08-24-10 at 08:31 AM ---------- Previous post was 08-23-10 at 08:36 AM ----------

Found what would seem to have been NASA's first full scale test of re-entry parachutes, it would be perfect for the sounding rocket fans.

Performance characteristics of a preformed elliptical parachute at altitudes between 200,000 and 100,000 feet obtained by in-flight photography

Test footage does exist but it is extremely poor.