Badminton is not a sport that most of us think about often, and extremely rarely outside of every four years at the summer Olympics and maybe at the odd cookout or beach party here or there. But the fact that it’s a little bit unique made it the prime inspiration for this new heat shield design, which might see a space flight and test as early as a year from now.
The inspiration comes from the shuttlecock, the object which would otherwise be a ball in any other sport. A weighted head, usually rubber or cork, with a set of feathers or feather-like protrusions mounted to it, contributes to its unique flight characteristics when hit with a racquet. The heat shield, called Pridwen and built by Welsh company Space Forge, can be folded before launch and then expanded into this shuttlecock-like shape once ready for re-entry. It’s unlikely this will protect astronauts anytime soon, though. The device is mostly intended for returning materials from the Moon or from asteroids, or for landing spacecrafts on celestial bodies with atmospheres like Mars or Venus.
With some testing done already, Space Forge hopes this heat shield will see a space flight before the close of 2023. That’s not the end of the Badminton inspiration either, though. It’s reported that this device can slow a re-entering craft so much that it can be caught in a net. Not exactly the goal when playing the sport, but certainly a welcome return home for whichever craft might use this system. Of course, getting down from space is only half the battle. Take a look at this other unique spacecraft that goes up in a fairly non-traditional way instead.
Burt Rutan had a different implementation, but is quoted as using the shuttlecock as inspiration.
Rutan’s “shuttlecock” design. This feathered reentry mode is claimed to be inherently safer than the behavior at similar speeds of the Space Shuttle.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpaceShipOne
Spaceship one – 8000m/s. Bit of a speed difference I would have said.
WTF happened to that comment? Spaceship one 900m/s, space shuttle 8000m/s it should have said
Looks similar to NASA’s LOFTID: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-Earth_Orbit_Flight_Test_of_an_Inflatable_Decelerator
This would make a fine toilet seat ain’t it?
It would?
And so begins the makings of James T Kirk-style orbital skydiving.
A heat shield based on a shuttle cock, there has to be a joke in there somewhere!
Especially if it goes horribly wrong.
Hotcock ready for re-entry!
Thats definitely a thargoid
Better not fly it near the pirates in their Cobras or they’ll pounce on it hoping to scoop alien artifacts.
Space Forge is a nice name, but making heat shields doesn’t do justice to what image it invokes really.
In the movie 2010, a sequel to 2001: A Space Odyssey, the space ship used massive balloons and aerobraking in Jupiter’s upper atmosphere to slowdown instead of using up fuel. In “Thunder Strike!” by Michael McCollum sections of asteroids were cut into shuttlecock-esque shapes and dropped into earth’s atmosphere to splash down in the ocean for harvesting. Kerbal Space Program has a Aero-Breaking module if remember correctly,
Its pretty cool to see a company actually putting these theories into practice.
In 2010 they were called ballutes, a cross between a parachute and a balloon I guess.