Aerocapture as an Enhancing Option for Ice Giants Missions

Dutta, Soumyo; Pérez-Ayúcar, Miguel; Fedele, Alberto; Calabuig, Guillermo Dominguez; Schuster, Stephan; Lebreton, Jean‐Pierre; Ali, Hisham; Sayanagi, Kunio M.; Özmen, Isil Sakraker; Reimer, Thomas; Sotin, C.; Scully, J. E. C.; Lu, Ye; Reddy, Sachin Alexander; Arnold, James O.; Feldman, Jay; Jha, Vandana; Wright, Michael J.; Hill, Jeffrey; Ellerby, Don; Wilder, Michael C.; Alunni, Antonella; D'Souza, Sarah; Johnson, Breanna; Sostaric, Ronald R.; Matz, Daniel A.; Moses, Robert W.; Young, Cindy L.; Girija, Athul Pradeepkumar; Saikia, Sarag J.; Lu, Ping; Hormigo, Tiago; Afonso, Gonçalo; Jelloian, Christopher; Albert, Samuel W.; Hume, Shayna; Bailet, Gilles; Putnam, Zachary R.; Falcone, Giusy; Kluever, Craig A.; Rea, Jeremy R.; Cohen, I. J.; Trawny, Nikolas; Chen, George T.; Spencer, David A.; Allen, Gary; Dillman, Robert A.; Austin, Alex; Venkatapahty, Ethiraj; Munk, Michelle M.; Cutts, J. A.; Lobbia, Marcus; Nelessen, Adam; Bhaskaran, Shyam; Powell, Richard W.; Deshmukh, Rohan; Tackett, Benjamin; Wercinski, Paul; Lugo, R.; Cassell, Alan M.

doi:10.3847/25c2cfeb.e8e49d0e

Cited by 5 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 15 publications

(19 reference statements)

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“…However, the demonstration of aerocapture at Mars or Venus will enhance its readiness for outer planet missions where its performance benefit is significantly greater [20,21]. Even though aerocapture is not currently considered for the Uranus Orbiter and Probe which is the top priority for the Flagship mission of the next decade [22,23], studies have shown aerocapture offers significant mission design advantages [24].…”

Section: Applications For Future Missionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For programmatic reasons, baseline Uranus mission architectures do not consider aerocapture [25,26]. However, aerocapture can offer significant mission design benefits for Uranus missions [27,28,29]. Figure 8 (bottom) shows the conditions for aerocapture at Uranus using an MSL-derived lift modulation vehicle (L/D = 0.24) entering at 29 km/s.…”

Section: Uranusmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Aerocapture can enable insertion of low-cost satellites into circular orbits around Mars and Venus [4]. For ice giant missions, aerocapture can enable orbit insertion from fast arrival interplanetary trajectories which are impractical with propulsive insertion due to the prohibitively large ΔV [5]. By utilizing the atmospheric drag to impart the ΔV, aerocapture can offer significant propellant mass and cost savings for a wide range of missions [6].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Small Low-Cost Orbiters for Planetary Science using Photon and Aerocapture

Pradeepkumar Girija

2023

Preprint

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With advancements in low-cost launchers and small interplanetary spacecraft, NASA has recognized the potential of small missions to perform focused planetary science investigations at Mars and Venus. The EscaPADE, part of the NASA SIMPLEx program will deliver two small spacecraft to elliptical orbits around Mars using the Photon spacecraft. Orbit insertion, particularly to low-circular orbits requires significant propellant, taking up a substantial fraction of the Photon wet mass and present a significant challenge for small missions. The large ΔV requirements for low-circular orbit make it difficult to insert small satellites into these orbits even with the highly capable Photon, as the total ΔV for Earth escape and orbit insertion exceeds its capability. Drag modulation aerocapture offers a promising alternative, using the atmospheric drag to obtain the large ΔV.The study shows how the Photon when combined with drag modulation aerocapture can deliver small orbiters to low-circular orbits, enabling a wide range of small orbiter missions. Aerocapture eliminates the need for Photon to provide 2 to 3.5 km/s of ΔV for orbit insertion, which translate into mass and cost savings, and can enable frequent low-cost small orbiters and small satellite constellations at Mars and Venus in the near future.

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Section: Applications For Future Missionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Uranusmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Small Low-Cost Orbiters for Planetary Science using Photon and Aerocapture

Pradeepkumar Girija

2023

Preprint

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“…Fortunately, cost reduction and increases in the capability and availability of launch vehicles (e.g., SLS) could significantly enhance the deliverable mass and thus scope of a New Frontiers-class Uranus orbiter mission, as well as potentially enabling contributed elements from other agencies, while also adding the capability to launch outside of windows with Jupiter gravity assists. Furthermore, the risk versus benefit of using aerocapture for orbit insertion should be analyzed, as it can strongly increase the mass of the delivered payload and shorten flight times (Hall et al 2005;Spilker et al 2016;Girija et al 2020;Dutta et al 2021).…”

Section: Required Mission Design Scope and Considerationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Case for a New Frontiers–Class Uranus Orbiter: System Science at an Underexplored and Unique World with a Mid-scale Mission

et al. 2022

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Current knowledge of the Uranian system is limited to observations from the flyby of Voyager 2 and limited remote observations. However, Uranus remains a highly compelling scientific target due to the unique properties of many aspects of the planet itself and its system. Future exploration of Uranus must focus on cross-disciplinary science that spans the range of research areas from the planet’s interior, atmosphere, and magnetosphere to the its rings and satellites, as well as the interactions between them. Detailed study of Uranus by an orbiter is crucial not only for valuable insights into the formation and evolution of our solar system but also for providing ground truths for the understanding of exoplanets. As such, exploration of Uranus will not only enhance our understanding of the ice giant planets themselves but also extend to planetary dynamics throughout our solar system and beyond. The timeliness of exploring Uranus is great, as the community hopes to return in time to image unseen portions of the satellites and magnetospheric configurations. This urgency motivates evaluation of what science can be achieved with a lower-cost, potentially faster-turnaround mission, such as a New Frontiers–class orbiter mission. This paper outlines the scientific case for and the technological and design considerations that must be addressed by future studies to enable a New Frontiers–class Uranus orbiter with balanced cross-disciplinary science objectives. In particular, studies that trade scientific scope and instrumentation and operational capabilities against simpler and cheaper options must be fundamental to the mission formulation.

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“…Using autonomous navigation functions provides tighter turnaround loops in high dynamic environment situations where long light-times precludes ground processing to -Uncertainty in relative spacecraft/body position -Unknown irregular body shape and gravity -Unknown geotechnical properties for landing -Limited a priori surface characterization -Autonomous navigation -Autonomous mapping -TRN, hazard assessment, landing -Autonomous surface navigation -Restorative fault management achieve required accuracy. Autonomy can enable operations in less predictable scenarios, like atmospheric aerocapture at icy giants, where turnaround time on ground-based navigation may induce additional risk, and for planetary constellation where coordinated, multi-spacecraft operations are required [29,30].…”

Section: Future Planetary Missions and Their Autonomy Requirementsmentioning

confidence: 99%