Permeability Modeling of the Mars 2020 Parachute Broadcloth Material

What is it about?

Parachutes are made from a thin, woven permeable textile commonly referred to as “broadcloth.” These woven materials have complex small-scale features that are difficult to resolve in full parachute simulations. This study investigates the permeability of parachute materials used for landing spacecraft on Mars, where the parachutes must inflate supersonically in a low-density atmosphere. The study highlights differences in drag between different computational models, suggesting further research is needed to investigate the sensitivity of parachute simulations to permeability modeling.

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