EU Horizon Europe Program: Project SALTO is working together with ESA's Themis program on the development of the first European reusable rocket stage.
As part of the SALTO project, a landing test campaign with a demonstrator model was carried out at the DLR Institute of Space Systems in Bremen.
The main objective was to investigate the influence of the residual propellant as a sloshing liquid on the landing behavior of a vertically landing vehicle.
The European Commission’s Horizon Europe project SALTO is coherent with ESA’s THEMIS programme, which aims to accelerate the development of the first European reusable launcher stage. Within SALTO, fly/recover/re-fly cycles will be performed, validating the landing phase of the reusable launcher stage prototype.
As part of the SALTO project, a touchdown demonstrator droptest campaign with a sub-scale model was done by the DLR Institute of Space Systems, Bremen. The primary objective behind this test campaign was to investigate the influence of sloshing liquid on the landing behaviour of a vertically landing vehicle. To achieve this, a lander engineering model was equipped with an acrylic glass tank and a series of drop tests was conducted in the Landing and Mobility Test Facility LAMA. Different filling levels and different vertical and horizontal landing velocities were tested. The acquired data is used to validate a touchdown simulator, which in turn is used to simulate the landing behaviour of the full-scale THEMIS vehicle.
Landing of a touchdown demonstrator with partially filled tank
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Landing of a touchdown demonstrator with partially filled tank
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