OVERVIEW ABOUT THE INSTRUMENTED NOSE ASSEMBLY DEVELOPMENT FOR THE EXPERT CAPSULE

Kurzfassung

The EXPERT mission aims at collecting precise in-flight data during atmospheric re-entry. For this purpose a vehicle was envisaged that is designed especially for that. Almost twenty payloads are on board of the EXPERT capsule which has the shape of a cone with a blunt nose. Four non-moveable flaps are located at the end of the capsule. The nose of the vehicle is made from a ceramic matrix (CMC) composite material. In the nose four exciting experiments are situated. Payload 1 is a Flush Air Data System that measures the pressure and the heat flux in five positions on the nose. Payload 2 collects temperature date on the inside of the ceramic nose at six locations via pyrometric measurements. Payload 10 is a spectrometer that investigates the chemical properties of the boundary layer around the nose via an optical window in the nose. Palyoad 11 is an experiment that deals with the catalycity of materials in the region of the interface of the nose to the adjacent metallic Thermal Protection System (TPS) of the capsule. This paper describes the development of the Instrumented Nose Assembly of the EXPERT capsule, referred to as the NAP, from the design concepts over the analysis and the tests up the flight hardware assembly.