Reentry demonstration of flare-type membrane aeroshell for atmospheric entry vehicle using a sounding rocket

An inflatable decelerator is promising as atmospheric-entry systems in the next generation thanks to the aerodynamic heating relaxation and its packing efficiency. Our group focuses on a flare-type membrane aeroshell sustained by an inflatable torus, especially. As an important milestone of our development, a re-entry demonstration of the flare-type membrane aeroshell was carried out using a Japanese S-310 sounding rocket. The experimental vehicle which has a 1.2-meter-diameter membrane aeroshell and 15.6kg in total weight was developed for the re-entry demonstration. In this flight test, the membrane aeroshell with the inflatable torus was deployed at 100km in altitude during a suborbital flight under the zero gravity and vacuum condition, and the experimental vehicle re-entered the earth atmosphere from 150km in altitude. The experimental vehicle accelerated to 1.32km/s and Mach Number 4.5 due to the gravity force and started decelerating due to the aerodynamic force at 70km in altitude. According to the flight data, the experimental vehicle kept intact during the re-entry and the flare type membrane aeroshell achieved the expected decelerating performance. This re-entry demonstration proves that the flare-type membrane aeroshell sustained by the inflatable torus works well as a decelerator for atmospheric-entry vehicles.