Topic 5: Entry, Descent & Landing (POC: Ron Merski – n.r.merski@nasa.gov)
- Advanced EDL architecture approaches
- Advanced EDL vehicle concepts – small spacecraft
- EDL systems analysis (empirical performance assessment tools, packaging)
- Aero-assist technologies — Aerocapture concepts
- Aero maneuvering technologies – trim tabs, morphing, RCS, magneto-hydrodynamics (MHD)
- Decelerator technologies – ballutes, parachutes, supersonic retro-propulsion, hypersonic inflatable aerodecelerators (HIADs)
- High end computing for EDL modeling — GPUs
- Flight mechanics and GNC methods
- Atmospheric model development
- Computational fluid dynamics methods and modeling
- Rarefied flow computations — DSMC
- Complex fluid dynamics characterization — plume surface interaction, supersonic retro-propulsion, RCS
- Unsteady aerodynamics measurement approaches
- Wind tunnel (subsonic, transonic, supersonic, hypersonic) aero and aeroheating instrumentation, flow characterization methods (MDOE), and testing approaches
- Entry systems structures, composites manufacturing and testing methods
- Landing system concepts
- Ultra-precise velocity and ranging methods — lidar
- Flight test instrumentation and low-cost data acquisition
- Flight data reconstruction
- Uncertainty quantification