Parametric study of manned aerocapture. I - Earth return from Mars

A parametric study of the Earth return aerocapture for a manned Mars mission is described. The variation of entry corridor width and stagnation-point heating with vehicle arrival velocity, lift-to-drag ratio (L/D), and ballistic coefficient (m/CjyA) are examined. To maximize corridor widths, the aerocapture maneuvers employ variable bank-angle trajectories. Vehicles with an L/D of 0.5 or more are found to provide a corridor width of at least 0.7 deg while keeping the peak deceleration load below 5 g for approach velocities up to 14.5 km/s. Vehicle convective heating calculations are performed assuming a fully catalytic "cold" wall; radiative heating is computed assuming that the shock layer is in thermochemical equilibrium. As expected, heating rates are great enough to require ablative thermal protection systems in all cases. Stagnation-point peak heating rates and integrated heat load are shown to depend critically on both entry velocity and ballistic coefficient. For the most severe cases considered, peak heating and integrated heat load are several times greater than those encountered by Apollo but within the range of experience for unmanned vehicles.

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