Cluster Development Test 2 an Assessment of a Failed Test

Machin, Ricardo A.; Evans, Carol T.

doi:10.2514/6.2009-2902

Cited by 14 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 2 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…A single damaged Main held onto the vehicle and allowed it to hit bottom-down, the force of the impact caused the vehicle to flip over ( Figure 17). The PTV was damaged beyond repair 8 . The Engineering Investigation Team (EIT) that investigated the CDT-2 failure determined that the primary cause was the inability of the programmer to remain inflated.…”

Section: Gen I Cpas Boilerplate Drop Test Failurementioning

confidence: 99%

“…This programmer collapse was found to be due to insufficient knowledge of the PTV wake environment and inadequate modeling of the separation conditions. 9 To address the PTV wake component of the failure, CPAS investigated several test techniques. These included a full-scale wake generating drop test vehicle, and scaled PTV test techniques.…”

Section: Gen I Cpas Boilerplate Failure Recoverymentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Simulating New Drop Test Vehicles and Test Techniques for the Orion CEV Parachute Assembly System

Morris

Fraire

Bledsoe

et al. 2011

21st AIAA Aerodynamic Decelerator Systems Technology Conference and Seminar

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The Crew Exploration Vehicle Parachute Assembly System (CPAS) project is engaged in a multi-year design and test campaign to qualify a parachute recovery system for human use on the Orion Spacecraft. Test and simulation techniques have evolved concurrently to keep up with the demands of a challenging and complex system. The primary simulations used for preflight predictions and post-test data reconstructions are Decelerator System Simulation (DSS), Decelerator System Simulation Application (DSSA), and Drop Test Vehicle Simulation (DTV-SIM). The goal of this paper is to provide a roadmap to future programs on the test technique challenges and obstacles involved in executing a large-scale, multi-year parachute test program. A focus on flight simulation modeling and correlation to test techniques executed to obtain parachute performance parameters are presented.

show abstract

Section: Gen I Cpas Boilerplate Drop Test Failurementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Gen I Cpas Boilerplate Failure Recoverymentioning

confidence: 99%

Simulating New Drop Test Vehicles and Test Techniques for the Orion CEV Parachute Assembly System

Morris

Fraire

Bledsoe

et al. 2011

21st AIAA Aerodynamic Decelerator Systems Technology Conference and Seminar

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The boilerplate added the proper forebody shape to the test (same heat shield diameter and lip), providing an accurate wake behind the vehicle for the deployment conditions tested. One of these tests (Cluster Development Test 2 (CDT-2)) did not achieve the intended test point due to a programmer failure 12 ; the other (Pad Abort-1) worked flawlessly to recover the boilerplate following the first test of the launch abort system at the US Army White Sands Missile Range.…”

Section: 11mentioning

confidence: 99%

Human Rating the Orion Parachute System

Machin

Fisher

Evans

et al. 2011

21st AIAA Aerodynamic Decelerator Systems Technology Conference and Seminar

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Human rating begins with design. Converging on the requirements and identifying the risks as early as possible in the design process is essential. Understanding of the interaction between the recovery system and the spacecraft will in large part dictate the achievable reliability of the final design. Component and complete system full-scale flight testing is critical to assure a realistic evaluation of the performance and reliability of the parachute system. However, because testing is so often difficult and expensive, comprehensive analysis of test results and correlation to accurate modeling completes the human rating process. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Orion program uses parachutes to stabilize and decelerate the Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) spacecraft during subsonic flight in order to deliver a safe water landing. This paper describes the approach that CEV Parachute Assembly System (CPAS) will take to human rate the parachute recovery system for the CEV. Human rating begins with design. Converging on the requirements and identifying the risks as early as possible in the design process is essential. Understanding of the interaction between the recovery system and the spacecraft will in large part dictate the achievable reliability of the final design. Component and complete system full-scale flight testing is critical to ensure a realistic evaluation of the performance and reliability of the parachute system. However, because testing is so often difficult and expensive, comprehensive analysis of test results and correlation to accurate modeling completes the human rating process. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Orion program uses parachutes to stabilize and decelerate the Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) spacecraft during subsonic flight in order to deliver a safe water landing. This paper describes the approach that the CEV Parachute Assembly System (CPAS) will take to human rate the parachute recovery system.

show abstract

“…An accident investigation determined that the PTV wake and presence of stabilization parachutes contributed to the collapse of the programmer. 3 The CPAS project concluded that refinements to the separation sequence were required to avoid the programmer collapse and ensure that the motion observed on CDT-2 is repeated on future tests. Other refinements to the PTV2 outer mold line were applied to reduce snag hazards and improve the likelihood of successful parachute deployment.…”

Section: Or Ormentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This test ended catastrophically due to cascading failures resulting from the collapse of the programmer parachute. 3 While the test condition was never achieved on CDT-2, a review of the extraction sequence determined …”

Section: Description Of the Smart Release Algorithmmentioning

confidence: 99%

Development of a Smart Release Algorithm for Mid-Air Separation of Parachute Test Articles

Moore

2011

21st AIAA Aerodynamic Decelerator Systems Technology Conference and Seminar

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The Crew Exploration Vehicle Parachute Assembly System (CPAS) project is currently developing an autonomous method to separate a capsule-shaped parachute test vehicle from an air-drop platform for use in the test program to develop and validate the parachute system for the Orion spacecraft. The CPAS project seeks to perform air-drop tests of an Orion-like boilerplate capsule. Delivery of the boilerplate capsule to the test condition has proven to be a critical and complicated task. In the current concept, the boilerplate vehicle is extracted from an aircraft on top of a Type V pallet and then separated from the pallet in mid-air. The attitude of the vehicles at separation is critical to avoiding re-contact and successfully deploying the boilerplate into a heatshield-down orientation. Neither the pallet nor the boilerplate has an active control system. However, the attitude of the mated vehicle as a function of time is somewhat predictable. CPAS engineers have designed an avionics system to monitor the attitude of the mated vehicle as it is extracted from the aircraft and command a release when the desired conditions are met. The algorithm includes contingency capabilities designed to release the test vehicle before undesirable orientations occur. The algorithm was verified with simulation and ground testing. The pre-flight development and testing is discussed and limitations of ground testing are noted. The CPAS project performed a series of three drop tests as a proofof-concept of the release technique. These tests helped to refine the attitude instrumentation and software algorithm to be used on future tests. The drop tests are described in detail and the evolution of the release system with each test is described.

show abstract

Cluster Development Test 2 an Assessment of a Failed Test

Cited by 14 publications

References 2 publications

Simulating New Drop Test Vehicles and Test Techniques for the Orion CEV Parachute Assembly System

Simulating New Drop Test Vehicles and Test Techniques for the Orion CEV Parachute Assembly System

Human Rating the Orion Parachute System

Development of a Smart Release Algorithm for Mid-Air Separation of Parachute Test Articles

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About