The German start-up Atmos Space positiondedicated to spatial logistics, has described As ‘Success’ the first flight of your Recentrrada Phoenix vehicle which carried out on April 21, despite the fact that data collection during the return to land was limited and The space capsule could not be recovered after amerizingas was initially planned. Even so, Atmos Space position ensures that the mission allowed him to obtain A lot of data on vehicle behavior.
It is fair that some of these difficulties cannot be attributed to the German company, but to Spacex, which put the Phoenix in orbit with a Falcon 9 as part of the shared mission Bandwagon 3. Bandwagon missions are a series of Spacex launches designed for carry useful loads to medium inclination orbits.
Spacex modified the flight plan shortly before launch
Five weeks before launch, Spacex communicated an unexpected change in the trajectory of the mission due to ‘operational restrictions’ Related to the main load, a South Korean recognition satellite. This change forced completely modify the location planned for the reentrywhich was originally planned in the Indian oceanto the east of Madagascar, near the island of meeting.
Atmos had prepared during 6 months This operation, including the rental of ships and aircraft for the recovery of the vehicle and data collection. But the change of trajectory caused the Phoenix to finalize About 2,000 kilometers from the coast of Brazil, making it impossible for its recovery and making it difficult to obtain data. In addition, the new trajectory forced a much more pronounced reentry, which increased structural loads on the ship.
To solve these difficulties, the company He aligned new land stations in South America To communicate with the spacecraft during the key phases of the flight that lead to re -entry, according to Spacenews. Also fought an airplane to collect data during the reentrybut Phoenix’s shocking was out of reach, which, together with the cloudiness, made the company I could not get images of the re -entry.
The objectives of the mission
As explained by the company’s CEO, Sebastian Klausin a press conference on April 22, the goal was triple: Collect data during the flight, operate and transmit data on useful loads on board (of commercial clients and the DLR, German space agency), and Evaluate the behavior of the inflatable thermal shield during the reentry.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wn9su_aqdo
‘What we can confirm is that We obtained many flight data‘, said Klaus. He added that The four useful charges were correctly activated and transmitted dataobjective that we can also consider it a total success’. The third objective, however, only described it as ‘partially successful’ and pointed out that they were still analyzing the flight data. Some They suggest that the thermal shield inflated as plannedbut the company only speaks of ‘initial analysis’.
The spatial capsule in the shape of a donut
This last aspect is the most innovative of this unmanned European space vehicle Designed for the transport and recovery of useful charges up to 100 kg, from space to earth. Phoenix uses a Inflatable atmospheric decelerator (IAD, for its acronym in English), which works as Thermal shield and as high speed parachutesprotecting the load during re -entry to the atmosphere and giving it that striking Donut aspect.
This design offers a Large front surfacewhich generates a greater Aerodynamic resistance May the vehicle decelerate more efficiently. It has deceleration capacity from 7,800 meters per second, approximately 28,000 km/h.
It is a system that does not need fuel, is light, can be reused and adapt to almost any rocket stage, space or satellite moduleexplains the company on its website. Use a Thermal shield composed of ceramic matrix (CMC, for its acronym in English) Reusable refrigerated Radiatively that supports temperatures up to 1,000 degrees. The CMC dissipates the heat generated on the surface of the vehicle emitting it in the form of infrared radiation to space.
Atmos Space position hopes to launch his second Recentrrada vehicle Phoenix next year.