Ballute Reentry Technology
A ballute (the term is derived from a combination of the words balloon and parachute) is an inflatable device that provides a large drag area to slow a vehicle entering an atmosphere. To date, vehicles entering the Earth's atmosphere rely on a layer of thermal protection material, either ablative or non-ablative, which tends to be heavy and expensive. The ballute system offers a more lightweight alternative
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Andrews Space was awarded a NASA Phase II SBIR in 2004 to design, develop, and flight test a variable-drag supersonic ballute to test system aeroelasticity and stability under transonic flight conditions.
Andrews is under contract with NASA Dryden Flight Research Center for an innovative transpiration-cooled aerobrake thermal protection system (TPS). The approach focuses on transpiration cooling of a flexible material. See the Advanced Materials section for more information on this work.
Ballute Supersonic Flight Experiment
The design of the Ballute Supersonic Flight Experiment was deceleration from 100,000 ft and Mach 2.8, transition from supersonic to subsonic flight, and recovery using a parachute. Flight test data is used to refine the ballute design and develop larger operational systems for NASA's Project Constellation. Andrews is currently developing and flight testing a subscale demonstration system.
Andrews completed an initial test in Eastern Oregon. The Ballute Flight Experiment demonstrated a new launch approach that employed a secondary "pilot" balloon to safely launch the experiment. The experiment was recovered and is awaiting reflight.
An animation of the ballute flight test sequence is available below, along with a video of the ballute inflation test at the University of Washington's vacuum chamber.
View Ballute Flight Test Sequence Animation:
Quicktime (7.0MB)
Windows Media (9.7MB)
View Ballute Inflation Testing at the University of Washington Vacuum Chamber:
Quicktime (8.2MB)
Windows Media (3.6MB)
