Enceladus Sample Return Mission
Jetting water vapor, ice, and methane from its “tiger stripes” - four sub-parallel, linear depressions in the south pole region - Enceladus offers something undiscovered outside of planet Earth: potential signs of life. The goal is to launch an orbital sample retrieval mission to the Saturnian moon. The sample will be studied using the more robust instruments that cannot be put on a spacecraft, which may lead to an answer on whether life exists on Enceladus.
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Utilizing ballistic and thermal heat equations, I modeled the reentry to Earth from Saturn’s moon, Enceladus, for our capsule to ensure that the capsule has the proper conditions for parachute deployment when reaching the appropriate altitude.
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Having achieved a velocity of 50.19 m/s at an altitude of 10km at the beginning of the parachute descent stage, I designed and modeled a Ring Sail parachute descent through iteration to find the proper size.
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For our mission, I outlined three main areas to subject the parachute design for assessment; a wind tunnel test for subsonic evaluation. A full scale high-altitude test to understand drag performance and dynamics as well to test deployment and inflation. Finally, CFD analysis will be performed to accurately characterize the parachute’s performance throughout the descent.
