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NASA’s Exo-Brake 'parachute' to help return small spacecraft to Earth

An Exo-Brake is a tension-based, flexible braking device resembling a cross-parachute that deploys from the rear of a satellite to increase the drag.

28th December 2016

Innovation in Textiles
 |  US

Transport/​Aerospace

An Exo-Brake is a tension-based, flexible braking device resembling a cross-parachute that deploys from the rear of a satellite to increase the drag. It is a de-orbit device that replaces the more complicated rocket-based systems that would normally be employed during the de-orbit phase of re-entry.

“The Exo-Brake’s current design uses a hybrid system of mechanical struts and flexible cord with a control system that ‘warps’ the Exo-Brake – much like how the Wright brothers used warping to control the flight behaviour of their first wing design,” explained Marcus Murbach, principal investigator and inventor of the Exobrake device.

According to NASA, this warping, combined with real-time simulations of the orbital trajectory, allows engineers to guide the spacecraft to a desired entry point without the use of fuel, enabling accurate landing for future payload return missions.

Testing

Engineers at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley, have been testing the Exo-Brake technology as a simple design that promises to help bring small payloads back through Earth’s atmosphere unharmed. The technology demonstration mission is a part of the Technology Education (TechEdSat-5) nanosatellite that was launched on 9 December on Japan’s H-II Transfer Vehicle from Tanegashima Space Center in Japan. The Exo-Brake will reside on the space station until its deployment in early 2017.

Since 2012, the Exo-Brake has been tested on balloons and sub-orbital rockets through the Sub-Orbital Aerodynamic Re-entry Experiments, or SOAREX, flight series. Earlier versions of the Exo-Brake and other critical systems also have been tested on orbital experiments on TechEdSat nano-satellite missions.

Funding

In addition to the goal of returning samples from the space station, the project seeks to develop “building blocks” for larger scale systems that might enable future small or nanosatellite missions to reach the surface of Mars and other planetary bodies in the solar system.

The Exo-Brake is funded by the Entry Systems Modeling project within the Space Technology Mission Directorate’s Game Changing Development programme. Additional funding for the Exo-Brake is provided by NASA Ames Research Center and the NASA Engineering and Safety Center.

The TechEdSat series of nanosatellites is a STEM collaborative activity that involves NASA early-career employees, interns and students from several universities including San Jose State University, University of Idaho, University of California at Riverside, and California Polytechnic San Luis Obispo.

www.nasa.gov

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