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The Advanced Supersonic Parachute Inflation Research Experiment (ASPIRE) was a series of sounding rocket flights aimed at understanding the dynamics of supersonic parachutes that are used for Mars robotic applications. Although the 2012 Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) had a successful deployment of a supersonic parachute, postflight analysis and the results of the Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator project called into question some of the assumptions underlying MSL’s parachute qualification program. The ASPIRE project was a key part of the risk-reduction program undertaken by Mars 2020, the follow-on to MSL. The first sounding rocket (SR01) flight of ASPIRE occurred near Wallops Island, Virginia on 4 October 2017, and demonstrated the successful deployment and inflation of an MSL build-to-print parachute in flight conditions similar to the 2012 MSL mission. ASPIRE SR02 and SR03 were successful follow-on flights on 31 March 2018 and 7 September 2018 that demonstrated the new, strengthened supersonic parachute designed for the Mars 2020 project. The SR02 and SR03 parachutes were targeted to 100 and 140% of the expected flight limit load for Mars 2020 to confirm new margins expected from the strengthened parachute. Prior to all flights, a multibody flight dynamics simulation was developed to predict the parachute dynamics and was used, in conjunction with other tools, to target Mars-relevant flight conditions. After each flight, the onboard data were used to reconstruct the flight trajectory and to validate the preflight dynamics simulation. Postflight analysis showed that all three tests achieved their targeted conditions and preflight modeling bounded the key performance metrics for the parachute. This paper describes the flight mechanics simulation, postflight reconstruction, and the reconciliation process used to validate the flight models.
Dutta et al. (Thu,) studied this question.