European eXPErimental Re-entry Testbed

European eXPErimental Re-entry Test-bed (EXPERT) is an European Space Agency aerothermodynamics research programme. It was planned that vehicle will be launched on a Russian Volna launch system and will provide knowledge and experience in the design and development of re-entry vehicles.^[1] As of 2012, one element in a European Space Agency push to develop vehicles capable of re-entry has been pushed back until at least 2013 as the agency seeks a launch alternative to the Russian submarine-launched Volna rocket which was withdrawn.^[2] One of its main goals was to test materials for ESA’s Intermediate eXperimental Vehicle (IXV), an unmanned, delta-winged plane launched in 2015 aboard ESA’s new Vega small-satellite launcher.^[3] Currently EXPERT remains in storage conditions in Turin.^[4]

EXPERT Mission Objectives

According to an ESA-ESTEC paper,^[5] the EXPERT program has the following goals:

• Enable in-flight data gathering of selected aerothermodynamic phenomena with high accuracy and reliability
• Allow the validation of numerical modeling tools (CFD) and of methodologies for ground-to-flight data extrapolation
• Qualify in-flight classical and advanced measurement techniques
• Conduct extensive post-flight analyses based on in-flight data, pre-flight numerical databases, preflight ground testing activities.

References

1. Space cone to acquire expert data
2. ESA re-entry test needs new budget after Russian pull-out
3. European Re-entry Capsule Grounded After Russia Withdraws Launch Offer
4. "ESA Bulletin 161 (1st quarter 2015)" (PDF). ESA. 2015. p. 79. ISSN 0376-4265. Retrieved 30 May 2015.
5. European Experimental Re-Entry Testbed EXPERT: Qualification of Payloads for Flight

External links

• European eXPErimental Re-entry Test-bed (EXPERT)
• EXPERT – European experimental re-entry test-bed
• EXPERT: An atmospheric re-entry test-bed
• Development of the re-entry spectrometer RESPECT for the ESA capsule EXPERT