Citation
Abstract
Current NASA plans for the exploration of Mars call for a variety of unmanned spacecraft to be sent to explore the planet, both from orbit and on its surface, before the initiation of manned missions. Some of these unmanned precursors will be the largest and most complex interplanetary space probes ever flown. Aerocapture, a concept for performing orbit insertion using a controlled flight through a planetary atmosphere to reduce a spacecraft’s velocity, has received a great deal of attention as a means for delivering much larger payloads into Mars orbit than could be accomplished using solely propulsive means. This article presents a brief survey of some of the important issues in aerocapture navigation and guidance system design and development. It quickly becomes apparent that this design cannot be performed independently; it must be viewed as but one element of an aerocapture delivery system, whose other major elements are the aerocapture vehicle itself and the Deep Space Network (DSN) radio navigation system. Since these precursor missions will likely be very costly, another important issue In aerocapture system design will be ensuring a very high probability of mission success without the benefit of a test flight program. Some methods used by the aerospace industry to develop complex, highly reliable systems are reviewed to assess their applicability to aerocapture navigation and guidance systems, and some suggestions are made for the design and testing of these systerns, which may yield very high reliability levels.
Details
- Volume
- 42-103
- Published
- November 15, 1990
- Pages
- 27–39
- File Size
- 793.1 KB