Design, manufacture, and validation of a student-made ringsail parachute for sounding rocket recovery

Abstract

In the previous years, the Parachute Research Group (PRG) of Delft Aerospace Rocket Engineering (DARE) has been relying mainly on cruciform, ribbon, or disk-gap-band parachutes for the retrieval of its capsules and smaller sounding rockets. However, heading towards a more sustainable future, with the prospect of full rocket recovery and reusability of larger flagship missions in the future, a new, high-performance main parachute had to be developed. As a result of these, a ringsail-type parachute was selected because of its excellent reefing capabilities, good drag performance, and flight heritage within the professional industry. This paper will focus on three main phases of the development of the new parachute type. Firstly, detailed designs and selection of these different designs created will be presented. Furthermore, considering the fact that this type of parachute is notoriously difficult to produce, new manufacturing methods will be proposed and discussed. Lastly, the results of the wind tunnel tests performed will evaluate and further elaborate on the drag performance, stability characteristics, inflation loads, and reefing capabilities of this parachute type.