An inflatable ballute system for aerocapture at the atmosphere-bearing planets and at Titan may provide significant performance benefits, compared to conventional propulsive capture and aerocapture technologies. Ballute simulations to date release the ballute at the appropriate instant and then ignore it to focus on the trajectory of the orbiter. The latest concept, which we pursue in this paper, is to employ the ballute to soft-land a small payload. Thus the same ballute can provide two uses (1) aerocapture of the orbiter and (2) soft-landing of the lander package, hence the term dual-use ballute. The dual-use ballute concept has the potential to dramatically alter the way we approach exploration of the atmosphere-bearing bodies in the Solar System. Cases investigated here include aerocapture and soft-landing at Mars, Titan and Neptune.


    Access

    Access via TIB

    Check availability in my library


    Export, share and cite



    Title :

    Dual-Use Ballute For Entry And Descent During Planetary Missions


    Contributors:

    Publication date :

    2005


    Size :

    19 pages


    Type of media :

    Report


    Type of material :

    No indication


    Language :

    English




    A Dual-Use Ballute For Entry And Descent During Planetary Missions

    Medlock, Kristin L. / Longuski, James M. / Lyons, Daniel T. | NTRS | 2005


    An Evaluation of Ballute Entry Systems for Lunar Return Missions

    Clark, Ian / Braun, Robert / Theisinger, John et al. | AIAA | 2006