Hypersonic Control Modeling and Simulation Tool for Lifting Towed Ballutes, Phase I

Global Aerospace Corporation proposes to develop a hypersonic control modeling and simulation tool for hypersonic aeroassist vehicles. Our control and simulation testbed will be focused on the particularly important problem of a lifting, towed ballute for planetary aerocapture. The importance of this technology innovation is in the understanding it can provide NASA on the control of hypersonic vehicles, in particular, of lifting towed ballutes. Lift control of a towed ballute will enable the use of smaller and lighter-weight ballutes for planetary orbit capture, which will make ballutes more attractive and feasible for missions to planets such as Neptune where high heating rates require extremely large ballutes for ballistic capture. The application of the comprehensive tool, to be developed in later phases, will be extensive including, but not limited to, control studies for entry and descent, aerocapture, and aero-gravity-assist with a range of hypersonic aeroassist systems (e.g. rigid and deployable aeroshells, waveriders, etc.). This proposal responds directly to the request in subtopic A2 to "leverage the foundational research to develop technologies and analytical tools focused on discipline-based solutions." In addition, in the hypersonic focus arena, we are responding directly to the interest in "system dynamic models incorporating the essential coupled dynamic elements with varying fidelity for control design, analysis and evaluation" and "simulation test beds for evaluating hypersonic concept vehicle control." More »