Location
Cocoa Beach, Florida
Start Date
3-4-1967 12:00 AM
Description
As part of continuing generalized overall space exploration studies, the Martin Company Space Exploration Group has been engaged in detailed study of the conceptual design of systems and configurations which ultimately would lead to development of a configuration suitable both for Mars atmosphere entry and landing an instrumented payload on the planet's surface. A significant aspect of these Voyager Program Studies encompassed an experimental program devoted to obtaining detailed data concerning the aerodynamic characteristics, heat transfer, and pressure distributions on high-drag configurations at Mach numbers typical of atmospheric entry. One of our most comprehensive experimental efforts associated with the aerodynamics of atmospheric entry included investigations on a 50° semivertex angle sphere-cone equipped with varied afterbody shapes (Fig. 1 ). This configuration is the subject of this paper. It was specifically selected because it is representative of an applicable Voyager configuration and is a simple enough shape to permit comparison of the experimental results with those obtained by theoretical study.
The facility utilized for these investigations was the Martin Company's 25-in. Arc Heated Wind Tunnel 1 located at Middle River, Maryland. All the tests were conducted at a nominal Mach number of 20 in dry nitrogen, and data were obtained at environmental condi - tions which closely simulated portions of a typical deorbit trajectory of the Voyager Lander configuration as exemplified in Fig. 2. The trajectories superimposed on these plots are de-orbit mode trajectories into the Martian atmospheres commonly known as VM-7 and VM-8, which are based upon the Mariner N occultation experiment.
Experimental Investigation at M-20 of the Longitudinal Aerodynamic Characteristics, Pressure and Heat Transfer Distribution on a 50° Semivertex Angle Sphere-Cone
Cocoa Beach, Florida
As part of continuing generalized overall space exploration studies, the Martin Company Space Exploration Group has been engaged in detailed study of the conceptual design of systems and configurations which ultimately would lead to development of a configuration suitable both for Mars atmosphere entry and landing an instrumented payload on the planet's surface. A significant aspect of these Voyager Program Studies encompassed an experimental program devoted to obtaining detailed data concerning the aerodynamic characteristics, heat transfer, and pressure distributions on high-drag configurations at Mach numbers typical of atmospheric entry. One of our most comprehensive experimental efforts associated with the aerodynamics of atmospheric entry included investigations on a 50° semivertex angle sphere-cone equipped with varied afterbody shapes (Fig. 1 ). This configuration is the subject of this paper. It was specifically selected because it is representative of an applicable Voyager configuration and is a simple enough shape to permit comparison of the experimental results with those obtained by theoretical study.
The facility utilized for these investigations was the Martin Company's 25-in. Arc Heated Wind Tunnel 1 located at Middle River, Maryland. All the tests were conducted at a nominal Mach number of 20 in dry nitrogen, and data were obtained at environmental condi - tions which closely simulated portions of a typical deorbit trajectory of the Voyager Lander configuration as exemplified in Fig. 2. The trajectories superimposed on these plots are de-orbit mode trajectories into the Martian atmospheres commonly known as VM-7 and VM-8, which are based upon the Mariner N occultation experiment.
