Mid Lift-to-Drag Rigid Vehicle 6-DoF Performance for Human Mars Entry, Descent, and Landing: A Fractional Polynomial Powered Descent Guidance Approach

Defining a feasible vehicle design and mission architecture capable of reliably delivering a payload of 20 metric tons (mt) or more is a great challenge for landing humans on Mars. The Mid Lift-to-Drag Rigid Vehicle (MRV), a rigid decelerator studied in NASA’s Entry, Descent, and Landing Architecture Study (EDLAS), has shown to be a viable vehicle candidate for future human Mars missions. As the vehicle concept matures, models of increasing fidelity are added to the six-degree-of-freedom (6DoF) EDL simulation. This paper presents 6DoF simulation results using model updates for vehicle mass properties, fineness ratio, and aerodynamic-propulsive interactions. Additionally, an assessment of the FractionalPolynomial Powered Descent Guidance (FP2DG) performance is presented, and the vehicle performance is compared with the Tunable Apollo Powered Descent Guidance (TAPDG). Finally, Monte Carlo results of the vehicle design trades are presented.