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setting off a small sonic boom heard by observers on the ground.
originally posted by: Rikku
setting off a small sonic boom heard by observers on the ground.
hmm
Ultralightweight ballutes offer the potential to provide the deceleration for entry and aerocapture missions at a fraction of the mass of traditional methods. A team consisting of Ball Aerospace, ILC Dover, NASA Langley, NASA JSC, and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory worked to address technical issues associated with ultralightweight ballutes for aerocapture missions under funding provided by the In-Space Propulsion Office at NASA MSFC. Significant technology advances have been made in the areas of ballute materials, aerothermal analysis, trajectory control, aeroelastic modeling, hypersonic test, and overall ballute system design processes. The results show that ultralightweight ballutes provide excellent performance and packaging benefits aerocapture, de-orbit, entry, descent, and landing missions to planetary bodies with a sensible atmosphere. This paper discusses ultralightweight ballutes, the technology advances made by the team, and applicability of the technology to planetary probe missions.
Joseph William Kittinger II (born July 27, 1928) is a retired Colonel in the United States Air Force and a USAF Command Pilot. Following his initial operational assignment in fighter aircraft, he participated in Project Manhigh and Project Excelsior in 1960, setting a world record for the longest skydive from a height greater than 31 kilometres (19 mi).[1] He was also the first man to make a solo crossing of the Atlantic Ocean in a gas balloon and the first human to observe the curvature of the Earth.
Serving as a fighter pilot during the Vietnam War, he achieved an aerial kill of a North Vietnamese MiG-21 jet fighter and was later shot down himself, spending 11 months as a prisoner of war in a North Vietnamese prison.
In 2012, at the age of 84, he participated in the Red Bull Stratos project as capsule communicator, directing Felix Baumgartner on his record-breaking 39-kilometer (24 mi) freefall from Earth's stratosphere, exceeding Kittinger's earlier freefall in 1960.
en.wikipedia.org...