Aerocapture offers a near propellantless and quick method of orbit
insertion at atmosphere bearing planetary destinations. Compared to
conventional propulsive insertion, the primary advantage of using
aerocapture is the savings in propellant mass which could be used to
accommodate more useful payload. To protect the spacecraft from the
aerodynamic heating during the maneuver, the spacecraft must be enclosed
in a protective aeroshell or deployable drag device which also provides
aerodynamic control authority to target the desired conditions at
atmospheric exit. For inner planets such as Mars and Venus, aerocapture
offers a very attractive option for inserting small satellites or
constellations into very low circular orbits such as those used for
imaging or radar observations. The large amount of propellant required
for orbit insertion at outer planets such as Uranus and Neptune severely
limits the useful payload mass that can delivered to orbit as well as
the achievable flight time. For outer planet missions, aerocapture opens
up an entirely new class of short time of flight trajectories which are
infeasible with propulsive insertion. A systems framework for rapid
conceptual design of aerocapture missions considering the
interdependencies between various elements such as interplanetary
trajectory and vehicle control performance for aerocapture is presented.
The framework provides a step-by-step procedure to formulate an
aerocapture mission starting from a set of mission objectives. At the
core of the framework is the ``aerocapture feasibility chart", a
graphical method to visualize the various constraints arising from
control authority requirement, peak deceleration, stagnation-point peak
heat rate, and total heat load as a function of vehicle aerodynamic
performance and interplanetary arrival conditions. Aerocapture
feasibility charts have been compiled for all atmosphere-bearing Solar
System destinations for both lift and drag modulation control
techniques. The framework is illustrated by its application to
conceptual design of a Venus small satellite mission and a
Flagship-class Neptune mission using heritage blunt-body aeroshells.
The framework is implemented in the Aerocapture Mission Analysis Tool
(AMAT), a free and open-source Python package, to enable scientists and
mission designers perform rapid conceptual design of aerocapture
missions. AMAT can also be used for rapid Entry, Descent, and Landing
(EDL) studies for atmospheric probes and landers at any
atmosphere-bearing destination.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:purdue.edu/oai:figshare.com:article/14903349 |
| Date | 22 July 2021 |
| Creators | Athul Pradeepkumar Girija (11068791) |
| Source Sets | Purdue University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, Thesis |
| Rights | CC BY 4.0 |
| Relation | https://figshare.com/articles/thesis/A_Systems_Framework_and_Analysis_Tool_for_Rapid_Conceptual_Design_of_Aerocapture_Missions/14903349 |
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