The options for recovering a returned manned Mars spacecraft are surveyed. Earth parking orbits from libration point to low circular are discussed, with a 500 km perigee, 24 hour period elliptical orbit chosen as a baseline for further calculation. Several techniques for recovering up to 100 metric tons of returned spacecraft are investigated, including recovery by a low Earth orbit (LEO) based orbit transfer vehicle (OTV) pushing the spacecraft to LEO, and OTV transporting and aerobrake to the spacecraft, and an OTV delivering propellant to the spacecraft. Methods utilizing OTVs results in less total mass in LEO, but may not be the minimum cost solutions if significant development and testing are required.


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    Title :

    Earth Vicinity Trades and Options


    Contributors:
    W. R. Stump (author) / G. R. Babb (author) / H. P. Davis (author)

    Publication date :

    1986


    Size :

    13 pages


    Type of media :

    Report


    Type of material :

    No indication


    Language :

    English




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