Aerodynamic Analysis of Inflatable Membrane Aeroshell

With continuous developments of the manned space flight and planetary exploration missions, a new inflatable re-entry aeroshell becomes one of the hot topics of international research. It has the obvious advantages of the easy package, light weight, large resistance area, the low coefficient of ballistic, and the small heat generated by hypersonic air. This vehicle can provide a new way for the emergency return of astronauts, deep space instrumentation and payload recovery. This paper focuses on an inflatable membrane aeroshell with a single loop. Three kinds of cone angle of 75 degrees, 90 degrees and 105 degrees are respectively studied aerodynamic drag. These results show that aerodynamic drag is relationship not only with cone angle but also aerodynamic configuration.