ASPIRE Aerodynamic Models and Flight Performance

The Advanced Supersonic Parachute Inflation Research Experiments (ASPIRE) project waslaunched to develop the capability for testing supersonic parachutes at Mars-relevant conditions.Three initial parachute tests, targeted as a risk-reduction activity for NASA's upcomingMars2020 mission, successfully tested two candidate parachute designs and provided valuabledata on parachute inflation, forces, and aerodynamic behavior. Design of the flight tests dependedon flight mechanics simulations which in turn required aerodynamic models for the payload, andthe parachute. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) was used to generate these models preflightand are compared against the flight data after the tests. For the payload, the reconstructedaerodynamic behavior is close to the pre-flight predictions, but the uncertainties in thereconstructed data are high due to the low dynamic pressures and accelerations during the flightperiod of comparison. For the parachute, the predicted time to inflation agrees well with the preflightmodel; the peak aerodynamic force and the steady state drag on the parachute are withinthe bounds of the pre-flight models, even as the models over-predict the parachute drag atsupersonic Mach numbers. Notably, the flight data does not show the transonic drag decreasepredicted by the pre-flight model. The ASPIRE flight tests provide previously unavailablevaluable data on the performance of a large full-scale parachute behind a slender leading bodyat Mars-relevant Mach number, dynamic pressure and parachute loads. This data is used topropose a new model for the parachute drag behind slender bodies to aid future experiments.