Ballistic Reentry vs Aerodynamic Reentry
Why Space Exploration Stack Exchange recommends it
Space Stack Exchange users link it when explaining the difference between guided lifting reentry and unguided ballistic reentry of capsules like Soyuz and Dragon.
Recommended by 1 people across 1 different months, 2018 to 2022.
What it is
Scott Manley explains how a spacecraft capsule can be flown through the atmosphere by exploiting its offset centre of mass and aerodynamic lift, rather than simply falling in a ballistic trajectory. He demonstrates the contrast in Kerbal Space Program using a small edit to emulate real capsule lift.
What people said
Recommends TrySCE2AUX · 2022-12 · Space Exploration Stack Exchange · on “Does a capsule rotate naturally during atmospheric re-entry?”
The capsule will roll into its most stable position (probably minimum lift) and oscillate around that position. It won't rotate and thanks to the bell shape it would keep the heat shield side forward. It would basically go into what's called a "Ballistic Reentry". Scott Manley has a great video "Ballistic Reentry vs Aerodynamic Reentry" [this video] that explains a lot of the concepts. Unguided, ballistic reentry has happened several times with Soyuz spacecraft over the last 5 decades (nice article about one of those incidents [LINK] on Universe Today, reason was later determined to be a failure of an explosive bolt that failed and did not cleanly release the service module) they had been in serv
Cites kkm mistrusts SE · 2018-10 · Space Exploration Stack Exchange · on “Why does in-flight mission abort often ends in ballistic high-g reentry?”
I am seeing a lot of references to the “ballistic reentry” mode of the crew return vehicle in relation to the abort during the powered ascent stage. In partiulat, the recent crewed Soyuz MS-10 abort is said by Scott Manley in his video [LINK] to have experienced a ballistic reentry. A table of space accidents on Wikipedia [LINK] also suggest that a mission abort is correlated with the ballistic reentry: Soyuz 33 and the above mentioned Soyuz MS-10 are listed as having had a ballistic reentry due to a pre-orbital mission abort. 2 is not a large sample, but I suspect there is a relation. I have only a superficial understanding of what exactly is this mode of anomalous descent. A section in the
Cites Saiboogu · 2018-11 · Space Exploration Stack Exchange · on “Shape of Dragon Crew capsule affecting ballistic descent?”
Your video describes a ballistic descent under no active control. The spacecraft spins randomly due to buffeting, canceling out the offset CoM that lets it provide lift when actively steered. A typical descent is actively steered with RCS to hold a desired angle of attack. See this video - [this video] -- This is not 'spin stabilized,' just a natural roll that occurs without guidance.