ABSTRACT |
A Japanese first Orbital Reentry Experiment(OREX) that successfully flew,was launched by the first flight of an H-II rocket on Februaru 4,1994,and was inserted into a circular orbit at about 450km.The OREX could get experimental data during its orbital flight and reentry.The OREX project was conducted in cooperation with the National Aerospace Laboratory(NAL) and the National Space Development Agency of Japan(NASDA).Pressure data along the flight trajectory is among the most important and dundamental of the aerodynamic data.NAL took charge of the pressure measurement,as one of various measurement missions,from vacuum at high altitude down to an altitude of about 75km with a four-decade precision capacitive pressure transducer.These data can be used to predict the surface pressure and the ambient pressur in similar flights in the future.The data verified the real gas Computational Fluid DYnamics(CFD) codes through comparison with aerodynamic calculation results.This paper outlines the design,fabrication,perfomance tests,environmental tests,flight operation,flight data and their evaluation of high-altitude pressure measurement systems. |