Update: Modeling Supersonic Parachute Inflations for MarSpacecraft

This work serves as an update on recent progress made by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology/Stanford/Stevens Institute of Technology team working on performing high-fidelity fluid-structure interaction (FSI) simulations for modeling supersonic parachute inflations relevant for Mars spacecraft. A key finding discussed in the present work is the generation of a toroidal vortex inside the parachute canopy during inflation, and the significance of how the system-level drag is influenced by this toroidal vortex trajectory as the parachute peak load and subsequent unloading is reached. In addition to reporting on technical modeling progress, this work also includes detailed information on the Advanced Supersonic Parachute Inflation Research Experiment (ASPIRE) parachute design [1–7]. The ASPIRE test program consisted of three upper-atmosphere Earth supersonic parachute inflation experiments, with SR01, SR02 and SR03 being the first, second and third flights of the ASPIRE program, respectively. This paper includes SR02 parachute geometry and material properties so that additional researchers in the community can compare parachute simulation results to ASPIRE flight data.