Manned Mars aerobrake vehicle design issues
Abstract
The paper examines the preliminary definition of the stagnation region aerothermodynamic environment, the effect of convective/radiative effect of trim angle-of-attack mispredictions, packaging issues, and the implications of wake flow for vehicles not having an aft aeroshell. The implications of each of these factors for a Mars aerobrake configuration with a L/D in the range of 0.3-0.5 is evaluated. It is shown that packaging and wake flow requirements have a significant impact on the final design of a low L/D aerobrake. Due to the large proportion of carbonaceous species in the Martian atmosphere, radiative heating is seen to play a more dominant role in the stagnation region aerothermodynamics than for an equivalent earth entry. It is concluded that this radiation amplification is an additional reason to consider a multiple aerobrake system.
- Publication:
-
Dresden International Astronautical Federation Congress
- Pub Date:
- October 1990
- Bibcode:
- 1990dres.iafcS....F
- Keywords:
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- Aerobraking;
- Manned Mars Missions;
- Spacecraft Design;
- Aerodynamic Heating;
- Angle Of Attack;
- Convective Heat Transfer;
- Radiative Heat Transfer;
- Launch Vehicles and Space Vehicles