Guided Parafoil System

This project will develop a system for the successful deployment of a small parafoil from a ‘can’ in space or near-space environments using wireless technologies. The wireless communication, command, and control system will be used to initiate parafoil deployment, and to wirelessly provide critical high altitude, low Reynolds number flow measurements from sensors on the parafoil. The system will be tested as part of the University of Idaho Near Space Engineering (Idaho RISE) high altitude balloon program. Applications of this work will eventually be incorporated into the TechEdSat collaborative nano-satellite project underway between the University of Idaho, San Jose State University, University of California at Riverside, and the NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California.