The 2011 Mars Science Laboratory will be the first Mars mission to attempt a guided entry to safely deliver the rover to a touchdown ellipse of 25 km x 20 km. The Entry Terminal Point Controller guidance algorithm is derived from the final phase Apollo Command Module guidance and, like Apollo, modulates the bank angle to control the range flown. For application to Mars landers which must make use of the tenuous Martian atmosphere, it is critical to balance the lift of the vehicle to minimize the range error while still ensuring a safe deploy altitude. An overview of the process to generate optimized guidance settings is presented, discussing improvements made over the last nine years. Key dispersions driving deploy ellipse and altitude performance are identified. Performance sensitivities including attitude initialization error and the velocity of transition from range control to heading alignment are presented.


    Access

    Access via TIB

    Check availability in my library


    Export, share and cite



    Title :

    Entry Guidance for the 2011 Mars Science Laboratory Mission


    Contributors:

    Conference:

    AIAA Atmospheric Flight Mechanics Conference ; 2011 ; Portland, OR, United States


    Publication date :

    2011-01-01


    Type of media :

    Conference paper


    Type of material :

    No indication


    Language :

    English




    Entry Guidance for the 2011 Mars Science Laboratory Mission

    Mendeck, Gavin / Craig, Lynn | AIAA | 2011


    Entry Guidance for the 2011 Mars Science Laboratory Mission

    Mendeck, G. / Craig, L. | British Library Conference Proceedings | 2011


    Entry Guidance for the 2011 Mars Science Laboratory Mission

    G. F. Mendeck / L. E. Craig | NTIS | 2011


    Entry Guidance for the 2011 Mars Science Laboratory Mission

    Mendeck, G. / Craig, L. / American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics; Confederation of European Aerospace Societies | British Library Conference Proceedings | 2011