Author ORCID Identifier

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2642-2960

Date Available

12-17-2025

Year of Publication

2025

Document Type

Master's Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science in Aerospace Engineering (MSAeroE)

College

Engineering

Department/School/Program

Mechanical Engineering

Faculty

Alexandre Martin

Faculty

Jonathan Wenk

Abstract

Kentucky Re-entry Universal Payload System (KRUPS) is a small-scale re-entry capsule developed at the University of Kentucky. The KRUPS project began in 2013 with the aspiration of providing an affordable and repeatable method of collecting data on the re-entry environment. Numerically-based methods used to model re-entry require experimental data to validate their predictions. However, re-entry data is not easily obtained. Flight tests of re-entry vehicles require extensive time and resources, including a substantial financial burden. Alternatively, ground testing is not able to accurately and completely replicate the complex re-entry environment. Thus, there is a need for an inexpensive and accessible means of conducting re-entry experiments, and this was the driving motivation behind the creation of KRUPS. Since the project began, numerous suborbital flight tests have been conducted; these tests led to the first hypersonic re-entry from the International Space Station (ISS) in 2021. Following the success of the first Kentucky Re-entry Probe Experiment (KREPE) mission, KREPE-2 seeks to return KRUPS to an overall Technology Readiness Level (TRL) of nine. The success of KREPE-2 will further solidify KRUPS as a reliable method of data collection, instrumentation testing, and validation of newly developed thermal protection systems (TPS).

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

https://doi.org/10.13023/etd.2025.624

Funding Information

This work was supported by NASA Kentucky Space Grant Award (no.: 80NSSC20M0047), NASA EPSCoR Award (no.: 80NSSC19M0014), and NASA Award (no.: 80NSSC21K0286).

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