Project Analyzing Wake Behind a Rocket

Increasing interest in space will lead to the exploration of uncharted territories in the solar system. A crucial element of these missions is the descent of the payload or entry vehicles into a new atmosphere.  Many variables affect an entry vehicle's descent. One of the most critical (and least understood) is the effect of turbulent wake on the drag of the system during descent.  Past studies have focused on many aspects of rocket descent but this vital relationship between turbulent wake and drag has not been thoroughly analyzed. This research was focused on analyzing the relationship between riser length and drag on a system. Extensive design of experiment and field testing (booster, payload weight, motor, parachute size, trailing distance, i.e. riser length) was carried out. To ensure consistency, it was absolutely vital to ensure the parachute was deployed at a constant apogee using a ballast system. An innovative approach was used to pack the parachute, so the inflation of the parachute remained similar throughout the launches. The major findings were increasing parachute trailing distance (riser length) or reducing payload to parachute diameter will increase parachute drag. Increasing drag resulted in the safest recovery of payload or entry vehicles as descent velocity is reduced. A theoretical model was developed to help shed insights into the effects of turbulence on drag. A relationship between recovery system drag and the trailing distance (distance from the payload to parachute or riser length) and payload-to-parachute diameter was obtained which will help design a safer recovery system