| Astrophysics (Index) | About |
A drogue chute (short for drogue parachute) is a parachute designed not for the usual purpose, but to slow down a vehicle, such as a jet airplane landing on a runway. It is modeled and named after drogues, analogous devices used in the water by ships for stability during storms.
In solar system exploration, drogue chutes have been used during the descent of landers onto other solar-system planets or moons that have sufficient atmosphere for drogue-chute operation. Using one reduces the mass of fuel/propellant by that which would necessary to carry out the same deceleration with a rocket burn. Such a drogue chute might be a supersonic parachute, capable of slowing the vehicle from a speed faster than sound in the atmosphere. The need to maintain stability during faster-than-sound motion adds complication to the design.