The Magellan spacecraft has been aerobraked into a 197 x 541 km near-circular orbit around Venus from which it is conducting a high-resolution gravity mapping mission. This was the first interplanetary aerobrake maneuver and involved flying the spacecraft through the upper reaches of the Venusian atmosphere 730 times over a 70 day period. Round-trip light-time varied from 9.57 to 18.83 minutes during this period. Navigation for this dynamic phase of the Magellan mission was planned and executed in the face of budget-driven down-sizing with all spacecraft safe modes disabled and a flight-team one-third the size of comparable interplanetary missions. Successful execution of this manuever using spacecraft hardware not designed to operate in a planetary atmosphere, demonstrated a practical cost-saving technique for both large and small future interplanetary missions.


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    Title :

    Magellan aerobrake navigation


    Contributors:
    Giorgini, Jon (author) / Wong, S. Kuen (author) / You, Tung-Han (author) / Chadbourne, Pam (author) / Lim, Lily (author)


    Publication date :

    1995-03-01



    Type of media :

    Miscellaneous


    Type of material :

    No indication


    Language :

    English




    MAGELLAN AEROBRAKE NAVIGATION

    Giorgini, J. | Online Contents | 1995


    Navigating the Magellan Aerobrake

    Giorgini, J. / Wong, S. / You, T-H. | NTRS | 1993


    Aerobrake aerothermodynamics

    Cooper, David M. | NTRS | 1990



    Aerobrake plasmadynamics - Macroscopic effects

    SHEBALIN, JOHN V. | AIAA | 1991