Search NASASearch

Engineering topics

Machin, Ricardo

Publications and source records attributed to Machin, Ricardo.

Subscale Test Program for the Orion Conical Ribbon Drogue Parachute

A subscale wind tunnel test program for Orion's conical ribbon drogue parachute is under development. The desired goals of the program are to quantify aerodynamic performance of the parachute in the wake of the entry vehicle, including understanding of the coupling of the parachute and command module dynamics, and an improved understanding of the load distribution within the textile elements of the parachute. The test program is ten percent of full scale conducted in a 3x2.1 m (10x7 ft) closed loop subsonic wind tunnel. The subscale test program is uniquely suited to probing the aerodynamic and structural environment in both a quantitative and qualitative manner. Non-intrusive diagnostics, including Particle Image Velocimetry for wake velocity surveys, high speed pressure transducers for canopy pressure distribution, and a high speed photogrammetric reconstruction, will be used to quantify the parachute's performance.

parachute

The Parachute System Recovery of the Orion Pad Abort Test 1

The Orion Pad Abort Test 1 was conducted at the US Army White Sands Missile range in May 2010. The capsule was successfully recovered using the original design for the parachute recovery system, referred to as the CEV Parachute Assembly System (CPAS). The CPAS was designed to a set of requirements identified prior to the development of the PA-1 test; these requirements were not entirely consistent with the design of the PA-1 test. This presentation will describe the original CPAS design, how the system was modified to accommodate the PA-1 requirements, and what special analysis had to be performed to demonstrate positive margins for the CPAS. The presentation will also discuss the post test analysis and how it compares to the models that were used to design the system.

Machin, Ricardo

Developing the Parachute System for NASA's Orion: An Overview at Inception

As the Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) program developed, NASA decided to provide the parachute portion of the landing system as Government Furnished Equipment (GFE) and designated NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC) as the responsible NASA center based on JSC s past experience with the X-38 program. JSC subsequently chose to have the Engineering Support contractor Jacobs Sverdrup to manage the overall program development. After a detailed source selection process Jacobs chose Irvin Aerospace Inc (Irvin) to provide the parachutes and mortars for the CEV Parachute Assembly System (CPAS). Thus the CPAS development team, including JSC, Jacobs and Irvin has been formed. While development flight testing will have just begun at the time this paper is submitted, a number of significant design decisions relative to the architecture for the manned spacecraft will have been completed. This paper will present an overview of the approach CPAS is taking to providing the parachute system for CEV, including: system requirements, the preliminary design solution, and the planned/completed flight testing.

Machin, Ricardo

The F-15B Lifting Insulating Foam Trajectory (LIFT) Flight Test

A series of flight tests has been performed to assess the structural survivability of space shuttle external tank debris, known as divots, in a real flight environment. The NASA F-15B research test bed aircraft carried the Aerodynamic Flight Test Fixture configured with a shuttle foam divot ejection system. The divots were released in flight at subsonic and supersonic test conditions matching points on the shuttle ascent trajectory. Very high-speed digital video cameras recorded the divot trajectories. The objectives of the flight test were to determine the structural survivability of the divots in a real flight environment, assess the aerodynamic stability of the divots, and provide divot trajectory data for comparison with debris transport models. A total of 10 flights to Mach 2 were completed, resulting in 36 successful shuttle foam divot ejections. Highspeed video was obtained at 2,000 pictures per second for all of the divot ejections. The divots that were cleanly ejected remained structurally intact. The conical frustum-shaped divots tended to aerodynamically trim in both the subsonic and supersonic free-stream flow.

Corda, Stephen