Aerobraking and aerocapture for planetary missions

The paper examines the utilization of aerodynamic forces to capture a vehicle into a closed orbit and/or to modify an orbit. Attention is given to two techniques: aerobraking which uses drag during successive passes through the upper atmosphere to circularize a highly elliptical orbit, and aerocapture which transfers a vehicle into a closed stable orbit from a hyperbolic flyby trajectory. Sample missions employing both techniques are discussed.