Space Rider is designed as an uncrewed reusable spacecraft that will operate in low Earth orbit for about two months at a time. Its cargo bay is intended to support a range of experiments and operations in orbit. At the end of each mission, the reentry module will return to Earth and glide under a parafoil to a runway landing.
ESA says no operational spacecraft has yet been designed for a targeted landing using a parafoil, so the agency is preparing an extensive test campaign. The drop test model was built in Craiova, Romania, at the National Institute for Aerospace Research Elie Carafoli, known as INCAS, and then shipped to the Italian Aerospace Research Centre in Capua, Italy. CIRA is handling the design, integration, and implementation of the drop test effort.
The avionics package, described as the spacecraft's brain, was installed in the second week of March. This computer runs the Guidance, Navigation and Control algorithms that will steer the parafoil and adjust to wind conditions, including gusts, during the descent to landing.
The drop test article is roughly the size of a mini van and serves as a full scale stand in for the 4.6 m long reentry module. It lands on skis, and its landing gear remains permanently open because that mechanism is not part of the current drop test campaign.
To complete the vehicle, engineers folded and integrated the parafoil. The parafoil measures 27 m in length and 10 m in width, making it about 10 times larger than a typical human paraglider wing because it must support the spacecraft's 2950 kg mass during glide and descent.
ESA said the folding and integration process took three weeks and required a custom built machine to press and pack the parachutes and parafoils. The deployment sequence is critical because any failure during unfurling and release in free fall would prevent a controlled soft landing.
Two winches pull the parafoil steering lines, and the spacecraft avionics control them entirely without human input during the guided descent.
"It is wonderful to see Space Rider reentry module taking shape like this, the teams have been working years on this project and although this is a test model, it looks and weighs much like the real thing," says ESA's Space Rider Space Segment manager Aldo Scaccia, "the teams cannot wait to put this model through its paces and see it model fly and glide."
Later this year, the test vehicle will be dropped multiple times from a helicopter flying at altitudes of up to 3 km over the Salto di Quirra test range in Sardinia, Italy. The flights are intended to recreate the final landing approach that Space Rider will perform when returning from orbit.
Thales Alenia Space Italy is the industrial lead for the tests and serves as co-prime contractor with Avio for the Space Rider programme.
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