Engineers in Italy have completed the first full-size test model of the European Space Agency’s reusable Space Rider spacecraft, clearing the way for a helicopter drop-test campaign later this year to validate the vehicle’s guided landing under parafoil.
The test article was finalized at the Italian Aerospace Research Centre (CIRA) in Capua, following delivery from Romania’s National Institute for Aerospace Research ‘Elie Carafoli’ (INCAS) in Craiova, where the airframe was built. CIRA is responsible for the design, integration and implementation of the drop-test program.
Roughly the size of a minivan, the drop-test article is a full-size stand-in for the 15ft (4.6m) reentry module that will return Space Rider’s experiments from low Earth orbit. The model lands on skis with the landing gear fixed in the open position, as deployment is not part of the drop-test program.
To complete the model, the parafoil was folded and integrated over three weeks using a custom-built machine to press and pack the canopy and associated parachutes. Measuring 89ft by 33ft (27m by 10m), the parafoil is roughly 10 times larger than a human paraglider and must support Space Rider’s 6,500lb (2,950kg) mass during descent.
The avionics were installed in the second week of March. Guidance, navigation and control algorithms running on the flight computer will steer the parafoil via two winches that pull its steering lines, correcting in real time for wind and gusts.
Aldo Scaccia, Space Rider space segment manager at the European Space Agency (ESA), said, “It is wonderful to see the Space Rider reentry module taking shape like this, the teams have been working years on this project and although this is a test model, it looks and weighs much like the real thing.”
Helicopter glide trials
The system drop-test campaign will see the model released multiple times from a helicopter flying up to 9,800ft (3km) above the Salto di Quirra test range in Sardinia.
The testing follows earlier drop-test campaigns at the same range that used low-fidelity models to qualify the parachute sequence and validate autonomous guidance, the most recent of which achieved a closed-loop landing accuracy within 492ft (150m) of the target, according to Thales Alenia Space.
Thales Alenia Space Italy is industrial lead for the drop-test campaign and co-prime with Avio for the Space Rider program.
