Stardust Parachute Trajectory Performance Reconstruction

On January 15, 2006, the Stardust Sample Return Capsule landed safely under a Pioneer Aerospace Parachute Recovery System (PRS) following a seven-year mission through our solar system in pursuit of comet dust. The two-stage PRS consisted of a 0.83 m Disk Gap Band drogue canopy that was mortar deployed near an altitude of 30 km and a 7.6 m Triconical main canopy that was extracted upon drogue release near 3 km. Parachute drag performance during this earth-based Entry, Descent, and Landing is reconstructed with the aid of recorded radar tracking data in conjunction with a two-dimensional trajectory model. The reconstructed trajectory is found to compare favorably with initial predictions & simulations for both parachute stages.