Lift to drag ratio (L/D) requirements and stagnation point heating have been examined for a variety of probable entry conditions and vehicle configurations. It is found that vehicles with an L/D of 0.5 or more provide a corridor width of at least 0.7 degrees while keeping the peak deceleration load below 5 g for approach velocities up to 14.5 km/s. It is shown that stagnation point peak heating rates and integrated heat load critically depend on both entry velocity and ballistic coefficient. For the most severe cases under consideration, peak heating and integrated heat load are five times greater than those encountered by Apollo but within the range of experience for unmanned vehicles.


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    Title :

    Earth return aerocapture for manned Mars missions


    Contributors:

    Conference:

    AIAA Atmospheric Flight Mechanics Conference ; 1991 ; New Orleans, LA, United States


    Publication date :

    1991-01-01


    Type of media :

    Conference paper


    Type of material :

    No indication


    Language :

    English


    Keywords :





    Parametric study of manned aerocapture. I - Earth return from Mars

    Lyne, J. E. / Tauber, M. E. / Braun, Robert D. | NTRS | 1992


    Parametric study of manned aerocapture. I - Earth return from Mars

    LYNE, J. E. / NASA, Ames Research Center / Moffett Field et al. | AIAA | 1992