Measured Impact Accelerations for Over-Land and Over-Water Sounding Rocket Payloads
Abstract:
The scientific payload carried by a sounding rocket must survive both the axial and lateral loads upon impact. Limited data are available to describe the impact environment of sounding rocket payloads. This paper presents results of a study to measure both over-water and over-land impact loads using an onboard data acquisition system. Deceleration histories for full scale over-water and over-land recoveries are presented. In order to ensure reliable recovery of the over-water system, a new parachute system was designed which included a deployable recovery instrumented platform(DRIP). The DRIP is tethered to a buoyant payload and houses the transmitter and strobe light to aid in location and recovery of the payload. Details of this new over-water parachute system are also presented.