A parafoil Decent Capsual

[ascan1984]

I remember reading that there was talk of of parafoil being used in a space capsal and that it was decided that this would not ne a good idea. I cannot remember why

 

[mlorrey]

That was on one of the Gemini proposals, though the X-38 used a parafoil and its mass budget was quite managable, with a zero fwd velocity landing.<br /><br />There was also an experimental one-man escape capsule for space stations that had an inflatable rogallo wing. This was ballistically tested, its fabric was an alloy wire fabric impregnated with silicone that ablated. It reentered fine and came to a soft landing. A larger 5-man version would have required more exotic materials, primarily due to a higher wing loading that would have not slowed the capsule down fast enough before it really hit dense air at high speed. However the inflatable wing flew fine at hypersonic speed within its own thermal regime just peachy.