Presentations at ESA Symposium on European Rocket & Balloon Programmes

Vorticity presented two academic papers at the 27th ESA Symposium on European Rocket & Balloon Programmes and Related Research, held in Trondheim, Norway, 2026.

The presentations focused on Vorticity’s work relating to high altitude ballooning and parachute drop tests.

Joe Lynch (Senior Engineer) delivered a talk on the second day of the symposium, covering the latest ExoMars high altitude drop test and results thereof. The talk covered a background of the ExoMars mission, the rationale behind high altitude drop testing of the parachutes, and a description of the results and execution of the drop test.

Joe Lynch (Senior Engineer) presenting in Trondheim

On the final day of the symposium, Joe presented a paper on the new adaptive timing algorithm used by Vorticity in the latest ExoMars high-altitude drop test. The algorithm used meteorological and dynamic inputs to constantly adjust the timing of the sequence to achieve the target inflation load.