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Article Reentry Shuttle after Cath 6 30 06

AIAA-2006-6985
A New Method of Atmospheric Reentry for Space Ships*
Alexander Bolonkin
C&R, 1310 Avenue R, #F-6, Brooklyn, NY 11229, USA
T/F 718-339-4563, aBolonkin@juno.com , aBolonkin@gmail.com, http://Bolonkin.narod.ru

Abstract
In recent years, industry has produced high-temperature fiber and whiskers. The author examined
the atmospheric reentry of the USA’s Space Shuttles and proposed the use of high temperature
tolerant parachute for atmospheric air braking. Though it is not large, a light parachute decreases
Shuttle speed from 8 km/s to 1 km/s and Shuttle heat flow by 3-4 times. The parachute surface is
opened with backside so that it can emit the heat radiation efficiently to Earth-atmosphere. The
temperature of parachute is about 1000-1300o C. The carbon fiber is able to keep its functionality up
to a temperature of 1500-2000o C. There is no conceivable problem to manufacture the parachute
from carbon fiber. The proposed new method of braking may be applied to the old Space Shuttles as
well as to newer spacecraft designs.

Key words: Atmospheric reentry, Space Shuttle, thermal protection of space apparatus, parachute braking.
*Presented to Multidisciplinary Analysis and Optimization Conference, 6-8 Sept. 2006, Portsmouth, Virginia.
USA

Introduction
In 1969 Alexander A. Bolonkin applied a new method of global optimization to the problem of
atmospheric reentry of spaceships [1 p. 188]. The general analysis presented an additional method to
the well-known method of outer space to Earth-atmosphere reentry ("high-speed corridor"). There is
a low-speed corridor when the total heat is less than in a conventional high-speed passage. In that
time for significantly decreasing the speed of a spaceship retro- and landing rocket engine needed to
be used. That requires a lot of fuel. It is not acceptable for modern spaceships. Nowadays the
textile industry produces heat resistant fiber that can be used for a new parachute system to be used
in a high-temperature environment.

Fig.1. Space Shuttle "Atlantic". Fig.2. The outside of the Shuttle heats to over 1,550 °C
during reentry.
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Fig.3. Endeavour deploys drag chute after touch-down.

Theory
1. Equations of spaceship reentry are:
R0
r  V cos  ,
R
H  V sin  ,
D  DP (1)
V    g sin  ,
m
L  LP g V cos 
   cos    2 E cos  E ,
mV V R
where r is range of ship flight, m; R0 = 6,378,000 is radius of Earth, m; R is radius of ship flight
from Earth's center, m; V is ship speed, m/s; H is ship altitude, m;  is trajectory angle, radians;
D is ship drag, N; DP is parachute drag, N; m is ship mass, kg; g is gravity at altitude H, m/s2; L
is ship lift force, N; LP is parachute lift force, N; E is angle Earth speed; E = 0 is lesser angle
between perpendicular to flight plate and Earth polar axis; t is flight time, sec.
The magnitudes in equations (1) compute as:
2
 R0 
g  g 0   ,   a1e ( H 10000) / b , a1  0.414, b  6719,
 R0  H 
0.5 3.15
0.5  11040  10 4     V  SP
Q     , Rn  ,
Rn0.5   SL   VCO   (2)
1/ 4
 Q  T2  
4

T1  100  , T  T1  273,
  CS  100  
 
DP  0.5C DP  aVS P , LP  DP / 3, L  2 aVS , D  L / 4,

where: g0 = 9.81 m/s2 is gravity at Earth surface;  is air density, kg/m3; Q is heat flow in 1 m2/s
of parachute, J/s.m2; Rn (or Rp) is parachute radius, m; SP (or Sm) is parachute area, m2; SL=
1.225 kg/m3 is air density at sea level; VCO = 7950 m/s is circle orbit speed; T1 is temperature of
parachute in stagnation point in Kelvin, oK; T is temperature of parachute in stagnation point in
centigrade, oC; T2 is temperature of the standard atmosphere at given altitude, oK; DP is
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parachute drag, N; LP is parachute lift force, N (the ram-air parachute can produce lift force up
1/3 from its drag); D is ship drag, N; L is ship lift force, N; CDP = 1 is parachute drag coefficient;
a = 295 m/s is sound speed;  = 40o = 0.7 rad is ship attack angle.
The control is following: if d/dt > 0 the all lift force L = LP = 0. When the Shuttle riches the
low speed the parachute area can be decreased or parachute can be detached. That case not
computed. Used control is not optimal.

Fig. 4. Space Shuttle Thermal Protection System Constituent Materials

The results of integration are presented below. Used data: parachute area are SP = 1000, 2000,
4000 m2 (Rp = 17.8, 25.2, 35.7 m); m = 104,000 kg. The dash line is data of the Space Shuttle
without a parachute,
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Fig. 5. Decreasing of Space Shuttle speed with parachute and without it. Sm = SP.

Fig. 6. Space Shuttle trajectory with parachute.

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Fig. 7. Temperature of parachute at stagnation point.

Fig. 8. Heat flow through 1 m2/s of Space Shuttle surface at stagnation point with parachute and
without it.
Discussion of results
Fig.5 shows the parachute significantly decreases the shuttle speed from 8000 m/s to 350 - 2900 m/s
after 550 sec of reentry flight. Practically, the Space Shuttle overpasses the heat barrier (maximum
of heat flow) near 200 sec into its reentry (see Fig. 8). The heat flow depends on the power 3.15
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from speed (see the second equation in (2)) and the speed strongly influences the heat flow. For
example, the decreasing of speed in two times decreases the heat flows in 8.9 times!
Fig. 6 shows: at altitude 41 - 44 km the ship has speed 350 - 2900 m/s which is acceptable for high
speed vehicle in short time of reentry.
Fig. 7 shows the maximum temperature in a stagnation point of the parachute. It is 1000 - 1300o C.
The parachute can be made from carbon fiber that can keep the temperature 1500 - 2000o C (carbon
melting temperature is over 3000o C). At present a carbon fiber composite matters uses by Shuttle
for leader edges of Shuttle where temperature reaches 1550o C.
Fig. 8 gives the heat flow through 1 m2/s of Shuttle without or with a parachute. If we continue
flight time up 750 sec, the special total heat will be following: without parachute it is 11.84108
J/m2, for parachute having area 1000 m2 - 7108 J/m2, for 2000 m2 parachute - 5108 J/m2, for 4000
m2 parachute - 3.5108 J/m2. That is about 1.7 - 3.4 times less then without parachute. It means the
future Space Shuttles can have a different system of heat protection and a modern design can be
made lighter and cheaper.

Estimation Parachute System

The weight of the parachute system and a comparison with current heat protection is key moment
for this innovative method. Industry has produced many metal and mineral fibers and whiskers
having very high tensile stress at high temperatures. Let us to estimate the mass of parachute system.
Assume the carbon fiber having the maximum tensile stress  = 565 kg/mm2 ( = 5.65109 N/m2) at
temperature T = 1500 - 2000o C is used for parachute. Let us take the safety margin 2.3 - 3. That
means  = 150 kg/mm2 for canopy and  = 200 kg/mm2 for cord. The fiber density is taken  = 3000
kg/m3.
The computation is presented in Table #1.

Table #1. Parachute data.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Parachute area Sp= Sm, m2 1000 2000 4000
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Reference parachute radius Rp, m 17.8 25.2 35.7
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Max. parachute pressure Pp, N/m2 1250 2000 6000
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Parachute surface Spc= 2Rp2 m2 2000 4000 8000
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Parachute thickness  =PpRp/2, mm 0.0074 0.0076 0.0072
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mass of canopy Mc=Spc, kg 45 90 171
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mass of cord, kg 66 132 258
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total mass, kg 111 226 429
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Max. brake force, kN 1250 1800 2400
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Add. Max. overload, g 1.25 1.8 2.4
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Currently, the mass of the heat protection in Shuttle is 9575 kg. If we decrease this protection
proportional the decreasing of the heat flow (in 2 - 3 times) we save the 4 - 6 tons of Shuttle mass.
At the present time, the changing of hundreds of hull protection tiles after every flight takes two
weeks and very costly to do. The new method requires only a few tile replacements (maximum
temperature is less) or allows using a protective cooling method.
The Command Module of spacecraft "Apollo" had a heat protection of approximately 1/3 of the
total take-off/touchdown weight. The gain to be had from a new method reentering may be
significantly more.
Conclusion

The widespread production of high temperature fibers and whiskers allows us to design high-
temperature tolerant parachutes, which may be used by space apparatus of all types for braking in a
rarified planet atmosphere. The parachute has open backside surface that rapidly emits the heat
radiation to outer space thereby quickly decreasing the parachute temperature. The proposed new
method significantly decreases the maximum temperature and heat flow to main space apparatus.
That decreases the heat protection mass and increases the useful load of the spacecraft. The method
may be also used during an emergency reentering when spaceship heat protection is damaged (as in
horrific instance of the Space Shuttle "Columbia").

References
(see some Bolonkin's articles in Internet: http://Bolonkin.narod.ru/p65.htm)
1. Bolonkin A.A., New Methods of Optimization and their Application, Moscow High
Technical University named Bauman, 1972, 220 ps, (in Russian).
2. Regan F.J., Anandakrishnan S.M., Dynamics of Atmospheric Re-Entry, AIAA, 1993.
3. Bolonkin A.A., Non-Rocket Space Launch and Flight, Elsevier, 2006, 488 ps.
4. Bolonkin, A.A. Electrostatic AB-Ramjet Space Propulsion, AIAA-2006-6173. http://arxiv.org .