THE RUSSIAN SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH INSTITUTE OF PARACHUTE DESIGN AND PRODUCTION (NII PARACHUTOSTROYENIYA, NIIPC) - HISTORY, RESEARCH AND COLLABORATION IN SPACE PROJECTS

摘要

NIIPC was established in 1946 for therndevelopment of paradrop equipment and is one of a fewrncompanies in the world to perform the full cycle ofrnparachute development, including scientific research,rndesign, manufacturing, test and modification.rnNIIPC produced the parachute systems for YurirnGagarin and all of the Russian manned space missions,rnVistok, Voshod and Soyuz. It produced the parachutesrnfor unmanned missions, Almaz, Bion, Cosmos as well asrnthe reentry modules for Mars, Venus and from the Moon.rnNIIPC has its own school for training ofrnscientific personnel and large scientific and technicalrnarchive. The existing knowledge and computer codes arernused for the development of prospective parachuternsystems. Research includes all aspects such as payloadparachuterndynamics, inflation, clusters, glidingrnparachutes, and aeroballistic heating and strength ofrnsupersonic parachutes.rnInternational collaboration included the Ariane 5rnbooster parachutes with Dutch Space and development ofrnthe current supersonic parachute system for EXPERT.rnAn Ariane 5 booster weighs 41 tonnes dry and involves arn3-stage parachute system. The EXPERT parachuterndeploys a drogue supersonic parachute at Mach 1.7,rnbefore extracting a main cross-shaped parachute. The testrncampaign for EXPERT started in 2010 and will berncompleted by summer 2011.