An aerial vehicle including a collapsible and inflatable vehicle body capable of being filled with a lighter than air gas so as to make the vehicle semi-buoyant or 100% buoyant at a predetermined altitude in an atmosphere above a solar system body. The vehicle body has a shape suitable to provide aerodynamic lift. The vehicle may include a propulsion device coupled to and extending from the vehicle body, where the device provides power to aerodynamically lift the vehicle above the 100% buoyant altitude to a higher altitude where the vehicle can maintain that altitude through the aerodynamic lift and vehicle buoyancy. The vehicle is configured to be deployed/inflated from a collapsed and stowed configuration to a deployed/inflated configuration in an orbit above the atmosphere of the solar system body, and is configured to enter the atmosphere in the inflated configuration and descend without propulsion.


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    Title :

    LIFTING ENTRY/ATMOSPHERIC FLIGHT (LEAF) UNIFIED PLATFORM FOR ULTRA-LOW BALLISTIC COEFFICIENT ATMOSPHERIC ENTRY AND MANEUVERABLE ATMOSPHERIC FLIGHT AT SOLAR SYSTEM BODIES


    Contributors:
    GRIFFIN KRISTEN S (author) / CARPENTER JON (author) / LEE GREGORY J (author) / LO AMY (author) / POLIDAN RONALD (author) / SOKOL DANIEL (author) / WAINFAN BARNABY (author) / JAMES WARREN (author) / POULOS DENNIS (author)

    Publication date :

    2015-07-30


    Type of media :

    Patent


    Type of material :

    Electronic Resource


    Language :

    English


    Classification :

    IPC:    B64G Raumfahrt , COSMONAUTICS / B64B LIGHTER-THAN-AIR AIRCRAFT , Luftfahrzeuge leichter als Luft



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