LOFTID Demo for Mars EDL

[VSECOTSPE]

Happening this week...

LOFTID is scheduled to launch Tuesday, Nov. 1, as a secondary payload with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s JPSS-2 polar-orbiting satellite from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.

After hitching a ride to space aboard a ULA Atlas V rocket, LOFTID will inflate and then descend back to Earth from low-Earth orbit to demonstrate how the inflatable heat shield design can slow down a spacecraft to survive atmospheric entry. This technology could support landing crew and large robotic missions on Mars, as well as returning heavier payloads to Earth.

https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-invites-media-to-learn-about-inflatable-heat-shield-demo

[woods170]

LOFTID is not a mission to Mars. Does not belong in this section.

It is being discussed here: https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=42483.0

[VSECOTSPE]

LOFTID is an EDL demonstrator for large Mars surface payloads.  LOFTID wouldn’t exist but for NASA’s future Mars aspirations.  Folks interested in future Mars missions might not be following an Atlas launch thread.  And folks following an Atlas launch thread might not want a big Mars discussion in their thread.  That’s why I posted it here.

There’s confusion in some quarters on this site regarding what’s necessary for large Mars EDL.  Someone recently posted about using Orion to land on Mars, for example.  A little sunlight on LOFTID and similar work towards Mars, even if it’s not an actual Mars mission, can’t hurt.

[LMT]

LOFTID might have a role in fleet-scale SpaceX cargo delivery.

At a versatile LEO self-filling depot, cargo could be attached to inflatables for Mars transit (inflatable tug and landing tanks, and inflatable LOFTID-style decelerator). 

150-t, 8-m cargo would sit above an upscaled decelerator and beneath landing tanks.  Previously, NASA HIAD was modeled at 18.8 m for MAV with diameter of 9 m and wet entry mass of 56 t.

Given the greater mass of a Starship cargo, it might make sense to design such a LOFTID system to withstand repeated entries:  first for capture, then for landing.  A capture orbit could cut landing EDL speed from 6.2 km/s reference to ~ Viking's 4.5, dropping final entry KE roughly in half.

[LMT]

LOFTID success.

https://twitter.com/torybruno/status/1590810170229395456

[leovinus]

NASA calls test of inflatable heat shield a success

Flight testing such a large aeroshell will also be a challenge. Del Corso said that NASA has looked at ways of demonstrating it by returning a Cygnus cargo spacecraft or even an International Space Station module.

https://spacenews.com/nasa-calls-test-of-inflatable-heat-shield-a-success/

[TrevorMonty]

Looks like somebody is going use HIAD for returning cargo from space.

https://exterrajsc.com/outpost-to-develop-cargo-ferry-to-deliver-material-back-to-earth/2022/12/08/

NASA has awarded a Phase 1 SBIR Ignite Contract to Outpost for the development of the Cargo Ferry, an adaptation of their Earth returning Ferry satellite, to deliver cargo from space stations back to Earth. Outpost was the only awardee for the subtopic focused on rapid, reliable, and cost-effective re-entry capabilities.

[VSECOTSPE]

One SBIR Phase 1 award is anemic.  Those are puny and max out at $125K per.  If they get to Phase II, it’s still capped at less than a million ($750K).  There is a Phase 3 that is more open-ended and may reach into the low millions, but they’d be lucky if they could prove that they can deorbit a nanosat for that money.  (And probably not even that.)  SBIR is great welfare for study mills that never produce actual capabilities, but it’s not for anyone trying to build substantive hardware or a revenue stream.

NASA needs to seed the industrial base for this.  ISS payloads wait weeks to months to return.  So will payloads on future commercial stations.  Gateway presentations point at this need, too.  None of them will ever compete with the timescale of terrestrial research turnarounds without an ability to bring back payloads more or less on demand.  There’s no reason SpaceOps shouldn’t go out in a COTS-like manner for such a capability from LEO.  ExplorationSys and SpaceTech can cost-share when the proposals or technology are at a scale or type that is also of interest for Gateway and Mars.  NASA can also help with testing facilities and landing real estate.

[LMT]

Global Aerospace Corporation's Small Probe Reentry System (SPRS) using Enveloping Aerodynamic Decelerator (EAD) Technology:

It's an alternate inflatable decelerator design, with LEO and planetary applications for small payloads.

Patent:  Nock, K.T., Aaron, K.M., McRonald, A.D. and Gates, K.L., 2018. Enveloping Aerodynamic Decelerator.
 

[TrevorMonty]

Podcast on HIAD development and future.
http://fiso.spiritastro.net/telecon/Cheatwood_2-22-23/

Current customers (paying NASA for some technology development) are ULA for SMART and Outpost. Presenter also mention 3rd customer that wanted high DV version ie BLEO but didn't say who. Blue helped fund some of resent ULA mission so take from that what you like.

There are other companies interested in technology.

One thing that wasn't mentioned is if decelerator is reuseable and if so how difficult is it to refurbish.

[Robotbeat]

I can sort of answer that. When I asked last time, they said that it could be reused. The actual inflatable part is pretty cheap and could be replaced each time without too much cost. I imagine you could save a bunch of money by reusing the inflation mechanism and deployment parts.

Now this was almost a decade ago so probably before any significant ULA involvement, but informally I got someone to spitball that the inflatable part cost around $250k, IIRC. Less than $1 million. Of course they were still at the prototyping stage so no idea if that was flight like hardware or not.

[LMT]

Related decelerator tech:  "Outpost Wins $1.7M DOD Contract for Ferry Platform"

The tech: The Ferry platform will launch with a customer payload aboard any rideshare rocket. When it’s time to come back to Earth, the Ferry will deploy an inflatable heat shield to protect the satellite as it re-enters the atmosphere. An autonomous paraglider platform will safely guide the satellite the rest of the way to Earth, ensuring it a smooth and precise landing, Tomko said.

Outpost has tested its inflatable heat shield, which was developed in conjunction with NASA, and has also tested its paraglider system with a high altitude balloon drop test. The next step will be a full-scale demonstration mission returning a payload to Earth, which is expected in late 2024 or early 2025, Tomko said.

Image:  Outpost concept of operations.  Outpost Space.

Image:  Paraglider test.  Outpost Space.
 

[TrevorMonty]

They could be in same business as Varda.
I can't see value in returning a satellite unless it inspace manufacturing facility that is also returning products

[LMT]

I can't see value in returning a satellite unless it inspace manufacturing facility that is also returning products

I suppose LEO apps are OT, and long discussion goes elsewhere, but e.g., the noted "megaconstellations".  Return them at the end of service life to refurbish, with new payload.  Potentially useful where sats are expensive and the business case chases fast-evolving tech.

What spysat classes might qualify?

[Robotbeat]

Could make sense when constellation mass gets so big that there’s actual legitimate concern about metal oxides from reentry becoming an atmospheric problem. (We’re not there yet.) of course any kind of reentry could pose issues, due to nitrogen oxides, but careful reentry engineering can mitigate that.

[catdlr]

NASA’s Low-Earth Orbit Flight Test of an Inflatable Decelerator - LOFTID Post Flight Video

Aug 12, 2024
On November 10, 2022 NASA’s Low-Earth Orbit Flight Test of an Inflatable Decelerator, or LOFTID, successfully demonstrated a cross-cutting aeroshell -- a type of heat shield -- for atmospheric re-entry. Video of the mission highlights and analysis of performance of NASA’s cutting-edge entry, descent and landing technology: Low-Earth Orbit Flight Test of an Inflatable Decelerator (LOFTID).
 

NOTE from Catdlr: You must view it. It's long but well worth the time to view.