We have just gotten home from the SMARAGD-1 campaign but have to react on our next possible launch window (Aug. 10-12) for the Capsule/LES test. So in approximately 11 days we have to be ready, and so far it seems like we have a GO on the technical side and from the normally crappy Danish weather.

One of the major tryouts of the Capsule/LES test is the three main parachutes. If you have been following this blog you will know the extensive development, the drop tests, unmanned and manned. Since these parachutes are DIY, as everything else in this project, they have taken a long time to create and we have never tried to install them inside the parachute compartment of capsule Tycho Deep Space.

When I got all three parachutes delivered some weeks ago, by its creator Søren Gregersen, I knew that fitting those 45-kg chutes into the compartment is going to be a challenge, or even a completely no-go – leaving the spacecraft department in shame for all eternity.

Capsule main parachute and the capsule compartment. Image: Kristian von Bengtson Capsule main parachute and the capsule compartment. Image: Kristian von Bengtson

The parachute compartment volume is based on what we knew from earlier primitive chutes used inside our spaceship Tycho Brahe-1. But the development of our new generation chutes made the final product much more bombastic due to the addition of deployment bags, liners and sliders.

So today I just had one order: to get those bags into the compartment!

The first try was just placing the bags into the compartment, as delivered, and I was just barely capable of fitting two of three chutes into the volume. Looking at our new industrial vacuum cleaner I knew that vacuum could be the answer. The bags were just too thick for any kind of controlled strapping.

I was assisted by Mads Stenfatt, who is a part of the parachutes team, and we tried roughly 10 times and spent five hours vacuum-packing each chute in large plastic bags while shaping them with brute force beatings and plates of wood until we were able to place them inside the compartment and finally release the vacuum.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA Finally. The three main parachutes (almost) in the compartment. Image: Kristian von Bengton

It was somewhat of a success but not ideal because I couldn't place the divider-plate between the main chutes and the drogue. So, I had no choice but to simply place the drogue on top of the main parachutes. Tomorrow I will finally install the top cone of the space capsule leaving this as the final configuration for the Capsule/LES mission.

These questions remain:

- Does the drogue have enough drag to pull and deploy the three main parachutes?

- Are the liners powerful enough to hold the drogue and the main parachutes?

- Did I remember to attach all liners to the parachutes in the bottom of the parachute chamber?

I guess we will see when we launch the Capsule using our LES engine.

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Kristian von Bengtson