Demonstrator of atmospheric reentry system with hyperbolic velocity—DASH

Abstract

Among a wide variety of challenging projects planned for the coming decade is the MUSES-C mission designed by the ISAS of Japan. Despite huge amount of data collected by the previous interplanetary spacecraft and probes, the origin and evolution of the solar system still remains unveiled due to their limited information. Thus, our concern has been directed toward a sample return to carry sample from an asteroid back to the earth, which will contribute to better understanding of the system. One of the keys to success is considered the reentry technology with hyperbolic velocity, which has not been demonstrated yet. With this as background, the demonstrator of atmospheric reentry system with hyperbolic velocity, DASH, has been given a commitment to demonstrate the high-speed reentry technology, which will be launched in summer of next year by Japan's H-IIA rocket in a piggyback configuration. The spaceship, composed of a reentry capsule and its carrier, will be injected into a geostationary transfer orbit (GTO) and after several revolutions it will deorbit by burn of a solid propellant deorbit motor. The capsule, identical to that of the sample return mission, can experience the targeted level of thermal environment even from the GTO by tracing a specially designed reentry trajectory.