Atmospheric re-entry stability analysis of the space vehicle SARA

The aim of this paper is to present a re-entry stability analysis for the uncontrolled, non-winged, blunted cone space vehicle SARA (Atmospheric Re-entry Satellite) by taking into account a ballistic trajectory. The SARA project is a cooperation between Brazilian Space Agency (AEB) and Institute of Aeronautics and Space (IAE) to develop and construct a recoverable space vehicle to perform microgravity experiments. The Brazilian suborbital rocket VS-40 provides the insertion of the SARA capsule into microgravity environment reaching altitudes above 190 km. The analyzes presented in this work focuses on two configurations for SARA being the first, a blunted cone without aps (aero-breaking) and, the second, a blunted cone with aps. The work shows in details the re-entry stability analysis and co-simulation methodology including Newton's impact method modeling (NIM) and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) software.