Exploration of the Ice Giants, Uranus in particular, has been indicated as the highest priority new flagship-class mission by the 2022 Planetary Science Decadal Survey. However, due to it's location in the solar system, extensive travel time and resources are required for a mission to reach Uranus. Aerocapture offers shorter interplanetary transit times and reduced propellant requirements for such a mission when compared to a traditional propulsive-capture orbiter. Considerations for the aerodynamics of an aerocapture system enabling flagship-class science mission to Uranus are presented. The applicability of a low lift-to-drag entry vehicle aeroshell with flight heritage to a new planet and atmosphere is evaluated. A preliminary aerodatabase is formulated from low-fidelity methods and heritage flight mission data to provide initial estimates of trajectory space to be considered for inserting a spacecraft into orbit at Uranus using aerocapture. Computational fluid dynamics calculations in the free molecular, transitional, and continuum regimes using Direct Simulation Monte Carlo and Navier-Stokes solutions are used to assess the validity of this preliminary aerodatabase. The considered entry vehicle is found to varying levels of agreement with work done by previous flight missions when evaluated for flight in Uranus' atmosphere. Implications for the aerodynamics of this vehicle as applied in an aerocapture system in flight at Uranus as found by the current work are discussed.


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    Title :

    Aerodynamic Implications of Aerocapture Systems for Uranus Orbiters


    Contributors:
    Eli Shellabarger (author) / J. Scoggins (author) / A. Hinkle (author) / S. Dutta (author) / R. Deshmukh (author) / M. Patel (author) / S. Agam (author)

    Conference:

    2024 AIAA Science and Technology Forum and Exposition (AIAA SciTech Forum) ; 2024 ; Orlando, FL, US


    Type of media :

    Miscellaneous


    Type of material :

    No indication


    Language :

    English




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