Questions tagged [parachute]
A parachute is an object used to slow down objects. It's often found in either a round or rectangular shape. In regards to space travel it's often used to slow down capsules after re-entry allowing for safe landing or to slow down space shuttles after landing.
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Spring release system 2.1m long rocket with a weight of 20kg
We have been searching for a trustworthy source to help us design the recovery sytem for a rocket which is going to fly 2600m high with a weight of 22.6kg in the beginning and 17kg in the end (at the ...
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How are parachutes attached to capsule spacecraft?
Spacecraft capsules (Apollo, Orion, Dragon, Starliner, Soyuz, etc) use an arrangement of pilot, drogue, and main parachutes to land. I'm looking for details regarding how and where these parachutes (...
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Why was the ExoMars Rover to use such as complex parachute system?
American Mars landers use a single, supersonic main parachute. The European/ Russian ExoMars rover was to use a much more complex 4 parachute system consisting of a drogue, a main and a pilot for each ...
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cross parachute - drag coefficient
I would like to know whether there is a mathematical formula which gives the drag coefficient of a parachute. I suppose that the drag coefficient is a constant depending only on the geometry of the ...
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Are any more details on the September 5, 2007 "Ares-1X Steel Rod Mishap During Static Strip Test at KSC Parachute Refurbishment Facility" available?
The presentation Recurring Themes from Human Spaceflight Mishaps During Flight Tests and Early Operations contains several rather "hinty" references to a mishap that occurred in September ...
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Why do New Shepard's drogue chutes just "hang there" for ten seconds before deploying the main parachutes? What happens during that time?
The cropped and sharpened screenshots below are from the Blue Origin video Replay: New Shepard Mission NS-19 Webcast after about 02:03:16 (T+08:07) and show a ...
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Why does the New Shepard Crew Capsule sometimes deploy 3 parachutes and sometimes deploys only 2 parachutes?
The NS-18 capsule on Oct 13 2021 (with William Shatner aboard) landed with 3 parachutes deployed. In contrast, The NS-12 capsule on Dec 11 2019 landed with 2 parachutes deployed. Strangely in both ...
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Why does Blue Origin claim Virgin Galactic's spaceplane doesn’t have an escape system whereas Virgin Galactic's passengers are wearing parachutes?
https://twitter.com/blueorigin/status/1413521631717122059 (mirror):
vs. https://space.stackexchange.com/a/54072/1111 by John Thomas:
[Virgin Galactic's passengers] do appear to be wearing parachutes....
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Dragon launch escape: is nose cone ejected for parachute deployment?
Dragon’s landing parachute is stowed roughly in the nose cone hinge area, and this leads me to believe the nose cone has to open for the chute to deploy.
In normal operations, I believe the nose cone ...
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What is the heaviest object to have been returned to Earth with a parachute?
Per What were the biggest and heaviest spacecrafts to safely return from orbit?, the biggest and heaviest spacecrafts to safely return from orbit were space shuttles and space planes.
What were the ...
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Do the passengers in Virgin Galactic's VSS Unity spacecraft have a parachute or some other way to escape the spacecraft if needs be?
Do the passengers in Virgin Galactic's VSS Unity spacecraft have a parachute or some other way to escape the spacecraft if needs be?
In the VSS Enterprise crash that occurred on October 31, 2014, the ...
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What skipped test on Genesis would have detected the backwards-inserted accelerometer which didn't deploy the parachute?
What precautions are planned to prevent samples returned from Mars crashing and releasing organisms on Earth? and this answer to Why would bringing samples from Mars back to Earth be a “civilization-...
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Have lasers ever been used to track laser-reflective parachute cloth for spaceflight missions? And what is it by the way?
In the JAXA PDF Hayabusa2 Information Fact Sheet (Ver. 2. 3, 2018. 07. 05, found here) on slide/page number 53 there is a diagram labeled Re-entry sequence overview and in the top right corner is ...
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Why did Hayabusa-2's capsule's parachute have transparent panels?
JAXA's photo of Hayabusa-2's capsule, at its landing on 2020 Dec 6, shows that its parachute canopy had some non-opaque sections. Why?
Transparency has no advantage for this mission.
Compared to ...
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Parachutes of Apollo and Crew Dragon capsules, what is different and what is the same?
The number of main chutes is different, Apollo three, Crew Dragon four.
Both capsules used drogue and main chutes.
Apollo had two drogue chutes with single stage reefing.
Apollo used a two stage ...
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How could SpaceX’s crew Dragon land with abort thrusters in case of emergencies?
Reading this question and this article linked in one answer, in case of two or three main parachute failure, how could super-dracos be able to slow down vertical velocity short before touchdown, since ...
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How do Crew Dragon's main parachutes deploy?
As far as I can tell, there are two distinct "doors" on Crew Dragon that house parachute-related equipment. In the below picture, I've outlined the upper door in yellow and the lower one in ...
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Why do you need a heat shield on Mars entry if the atmosphere is so thin?
Mars' atmosphere is only .088 psi. Is that enough to cause heat at high altitude? Shouldn't you be able to fly close to the surface at orbital speeds like on the moon? How does a parachute work with ...
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Soyuz parachute cord/rope forces
I'm wondering about the forces (e.g., how much pressure is being applied, how much pulling force, etc.) experienced by the ropes of the Soyuz parachutes when they are deployed.
Many thanks!
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What is the speed of crew Dragon upon splashdown?
After reentry, what is the speed of the Dragon 2 capsule right before splashdown?
What g-force is received upon splashdown?
At the time of writing, this answer gives such information for many other ...
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Are there any studies or technology envisioned for Mars entry and landing without a parachute?
Are any space agencies examining the possibility of a Mars landing without a parachute?
It wasn't clear to me if the use of the HIAD (Hypersonic Inflatable Aerodynamic Decelerator) would eliminate ...
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Could one skydive from a space capsule that just had a parachute failure during re-entry?
Say you're in a space capsule. The space capsule has mostly survived re-entry, but the capsule's parachutes fell off. If you had a regular skydiving parachute with you, is there any way you could ...
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What is it about parachutes that makes people always want to "re-invent the wheel"?
For technology that involves complex engineering issues, standardization and specialization is extremely helpful. If I want to design a complex ASIC IC I don't design it from scratch, I just drag-and-...
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Source for details on Exomars parachute damage?
(diagram credit ESA)
With Ars Technica reporting today that a two-year launch delay is likely because of parachute problems, I went looking for details.
ESA press releases linked in the article are ...
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G forces on Mars Science Laboratory during parachute deployment?
The parachute for the MSL was "designed to survive deployment at Mach 2.2 in the Martian atmosphere, where it will generate up to 65,000 pounds of drag force."
What was the G force the MSL ...
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In multiple parachutes, is each offset by a weight/hole?
Source: NASA via wikimedia.org
As the image shows, in multiple parachutes, each assumes a position away from the center. The post, Why don't 3-parachute descent systems collide and collapse?, ...
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How do the chutes stay separate? [duplicate]
In the below picture the parachutes are spread out, but ordinarily drag would pull all the chutes to the same position directly behind the capsule. How is this spread achieved?
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Crew Dragon parachutes; "One of these things is not like the other..."
In blogs.nasa.gov's Commercial Crew Program Testing Fosters Improvements in Parachute Safety there are photos of the four parachutes that bring Crew Dragon safely to back to Earth's surface, found ...
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Does the FAA still license the people who fold human-rated reentry parachutes?
One of the links in the question International Orange? is the History.com article The Amazing Handmade Tech That Powered Apollo 11’s Moon Voyage which says of Apollo capsule re-entry and landing ...
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Why no parachutes in the Orion AA2 abort test?
On July 2, 2019, the Ascent Abort 2 test of the Orion spacecraft was performed, with the Orion command module ascending on a solid rocket booster, then firing its launch escape system to safely ...
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How exactly were solid-fuel rockets added to the parachute lines of the Voskhod capsule?
This answer notes that Voskhod:
...added a small solid-fuel rocket to the parachute lines. It fired as the descent module neared touchdown, providing a softer landing.
How exactly did they safely ...
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Testing a parachute for a Mars landing using a wind tunnel at hypersonic speed and Martian pressure?
The parachute for the Mars Science Laboratory (with the Curiosity rover) was tested in the NASA Ames Research Center 80 by 120 Foot Wind Tunnel.
The wind tunnel is currently capable of air speeds up ...
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Conditions and sensors that can be used for parachute deployment?
I'm looking for an explanation on ideal conditions/considered factors when a parachute is deployed (particularly in large competition rockets). Also what sensors should be used to measure these ...
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What happens to Insight's parachute on Mars?
All of the animations I see show the heat shield detaching and falling to the ground, then Insight detaching and landing. There is no information about what happens with the upper part of the heat ...
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Why is InSight's nylon parachute a "soft good"?
NBC News' Mars InSight's landing team leader is all 'nerves and excitement' ahead of risky touchdown includes a conversation with Rob Grover, "who leads the team in charge of InSight's landing at ...
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What is SpaceX's parachute problem that NASA is concerned about in the NASA ASAP report?
The Washington Post's NASA to launch safety review of SpaceX and Boeing after video of Elon Musk smoking pot rankled agency leaders says:
Earlier this year, Boeing had a propellant leak during a test ...
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Why can't you just parachute down right from orbit?
This will surely seem, at least at first sight, a completely stupid idea, seeing the usual “space isn't high away, it's fast away”, and that the heat shields which actually are used need to withstand ...
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What makes it so hard to precisely land a fairing?
SpaceX currently tries to land their fairing halves on a boat with a net attached to it. So far they had no success but landed nearby, although quadrupling the net area.
They first tried with this ...
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How does a landing spacecraft control main parachute inflation?
In a recent post from SpaceX about Crew Dragon parachute test you can see how the main parachutes are deployed in semi-folded state, after a while they inflate a bit and after another while they ...
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Parachute Effectiveness on Various Planets in our Solar System?
I was actually wondering which planets in our solar system would allow for probe landing VIA parachute-based technology and which would have a high likely-hood of not destroying the probe before it ...
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Does the Mars2020 lander need a new parachute design?
The EarthSky.org article Supersonic parachute test off Virginia coast March 27 and the linked YouTube video NASA’s Mars 2020 Supersonic Parachute: Test Flight #1 describes a recent test launched by a ...
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Would a balloon pop if dropped from space?
Could a "simple" inflated party balloon be dropped from space entering an atmosphere? The first case at orbital speed, the second case just outside the atmosphere and the third interplanetary?
The ...
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Why haven't backup parachutes been used for spacecraft?
Skydivers normally wear a backup parachute. Apollo 15 survived with two out of three parachutes working properly. But wouldn't it be great to have a second deployment option, like skydivers do? The ...
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Could a modified Jiffy Pop container survive atmospheric re-entry to deliver fresh popcorn anywhere in the world? [closed]
In the 1960s the USSR developed the Fractional Orbital Bombardment System. We can call this system FOBS for short. This system permitted the launch of a payload of nuclear warheads which briefly ...
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Why does the Soyuz parachute pulsate?
During the recent return of Expedition 47 from the ISS, I noticed the main parachute of their Soyuz capsule pulsating. You can see it in this video:
"Flat":
"Domed":
My wife noted that it looks a ...
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Why is it even desirable for a spacecraft to land without a parachute?
In this SpaceX promotional video, they indicate their plans to land a crewed capsule without a parachute, using landing thrusters. I know that Soyuz does this too, though in combination with a landing ...
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Parachute on the ISS [closed]
If a large parachute were attached to the ISS, how long would it last? I know that there is very little atmosphere where the ISS orbits, but also that the atmosphere is thick enough that it needs a ...
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What is NASA doing to improve the supersonic parachute for the third LDSD test?
Last month, on June 8, 2015, NASA ran the second Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator (LDSD) flight test off the island of Kauai, Hawaii. The inflatable decelerator portion of the test was successful, ...
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Modelling for the LDSD parachute - what are the issues with scale models and software simulations?
The LDSD1 parachute is too large to test in any current wind tunnel, the only test possible on the ground was the rocket sled test.
In this NASA Edge episode (starting at 15:12), Ian Clark talked ...
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Why does the Soyuz spacecraft's parachute have so many lines?
Image shows a myriad of lines holding down the parachute. I can't even count them all. Is this really necessary?
All those strings must surely add a lot of weight to the Soyuz TMA. I would think that ...
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