As part of a NIAC funded Titan sample return mission, NASA GRC’s Compass Team has investigated a two-stage, in-situ propellant, launch vehicle design. This paper presents a proposed trajectory for the vehicle and mission of interest. This trajectory is optimally solved to balance drag losses in the denser atmosphere along with gravity losses accumulated during vehicle ascent to select an optimal path from Titan’s surface to a parking orbit. The resulting trajectory is characterized by a slow, vertical climb to an altitude above the densest part of the atmosphere followed by a vehicle pitch-over and climb to orbital insertion. The resulting ∆V is 3.96 km/s.


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    Title :

    An Optimized Trajectory for a Two-Stage, Surface to Orbit Titan Launch Vehicle


    Contributors:

    Conference:

    2022 AAS/AIAA Astrodynamics Specialist Conference ; 2022 ; Charlotte, NC, US


    Type of media :

    Conference paper


    Type of material :

    No indication


    Language :

    English





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