Specificities of landing propulsion system jets’ gas dynamic effects on re-entry vehicle and ground surface during landing

Abstract

The re-entry vehicle that is part of the new generation piloted spacecraft being developed in RSC “Energia” is designed to land on ground with the help of parachute-reactive landing system. One of the parts of this system is the propulsion unit that helps reduce the descend velocity just before touchdown. Knowledge of gas dynamics of jets formed by combustion products of working propulsion unit is essential for designing its regime. This paper contains results of numerical simulation of the landing process of re-entry vehicle with active propulsion unit near the ground. Among the acquired data are pressure distributions over the landing area and over the surface of the re-entry vehicle. Obtained results are necessary for determining optimal configuration and regime of the propulsion unit. Key words: landing propulsion system, re-entry vehicle, jet gas dynamics.