EXPERT: THE ESA EXPERIMENTAL RE-ENTRY TEST-BED PROGRAMME

摘要

EXPERT is developed by the European Space Agency in order to provide high quality data on the critical aero-thermodynamic phenomenon encountered during hypersonic flights as well as to provide to industry system experience of re-entry vehicle manufacturing. The EXPERT is equipped with 14 experiments provided by several scientific institutions all around Europe.EXPERT will be launched from the Pacific Ocean into a sub-orbital trajectory by the Volna Russian launch system which is a submarine-based decommissioned Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM). After a ballistic flight, it will land on the Kamchatka peninsula by means of a parachute. It will then be recovered for post-flight analysis. The launch is expected in 2010.The collected flight results are expected to benefit all atmospheric re-entry activities ranging from future human and cargo orbital transportation systems to re-usable launchers as well as scientific probes.The paper describes the status of the EXPERT programme as well as the main challenges and the expected benefit.