When entering orbit about a planet or moon with an appreciable atmosphere, instead of using only the propulsion system to insert the spacecraft into its desired orbit, aerodynamic drag can be used after the initial orbit insertion to further decelerate the spacecraft. Several past NASA missions have used this aerobraking technique to reduce the fuel required to deliver a spacecraft into a desired orbit. Aerobraking was first demonstrated at Venus with Magellan in 1993 and then was used to achieve the science orbit of three Mars orbiters: Mars Global Surveyor in 1997, Mars Odyssey in 2001, and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter in 2006. Although aerobraking itself reduces the propellant required to reach a final low period orbit, it does so at the expense of additional mission time to accommodate the aerobraking operations phase (typically 3-6 months), a large mission operations staff, and significant Deep Space Network (DSN) coverage. By automating ground based tasks and analyses associated with aerobraking and moving these onboard the spacecraft, a flight project could save millions of dollars in operations staffing and DSN costs (Ref. 1).


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    Title :

    Autonomous Aerobraking Development Software: Phase One Performance Analysis at Mars, Venus, and Titan



    Conference:

    AIAA/AAS Astrodynamics Specialists Conference ; 2012 ; Minneapolis, MN, United States


    Publication date :

    2012-08-13


    Type of media :

    Conference paper


    Type of material :

    No indication


    Language :

    English


    Keywords :



    Autonomous Aerobraking Development Software: Phase One Performance Analysis at Mars, Venus, and Titan

    Maddock, Robert / Bowes, Angela / Powell, Richard et al. | AIAA | 2012


    Autonomous Aerobraking Development Software: Phase One Performance Analysis at Mars, Venus, and Titan

    Maddock, R. / Bowes, A. / Dwyer-Cianciolo, A. et al. | British Library Conference Proceedings | 2012


    Aerobraking at Venus and Mars

    Lyons, Daniel T. | NTRS | 1996


    Autonomous Aerobraking at Mars

    Hanna, Jill L. / Tolson, Robert / Cianciolo, Alicia Dwyer et al. | NTRS | 2002