Enabling and Enhancing Science Exploration Across the Solar System: Aerocapture Technology for SmallSat to Flagship Missions

Austin, Alex; Afonso, Gonçalo; Albert, Samuel W.; Ali, Hisham; Alunni, Antonella; Arnold, James O.; Bailet, Gilles; Beauchamp, P.; Cassell, Alan M.; Cutts, J.; Deshmukh, Rohan; Dillman, Robert A.; D'Souza, Sarah; Dutta, Soumyo; Edwards, C. S.; Ellerby, Don; Elliott, John; Falcone, Giusy; Fedele, Alberto; Feldman, Jay; Freeman, A.; Girija, Athul Pradeepkumar; Hill, Jeffrey; Hormigo, Tiago; Hume, Shayna; Jelloian, Christopher; Jha, Vandana; Johnson, Breanna; Kluever, Craig A.; Lebreton, Jean‐Pierre; Lobbia, Marcus; Lu, Ping; Lu, Ye; Lugo, R.; Matz, Daniel A.; Moses, Robert W.; Munk, Michelle M.; Nelessen, Adam; Özmen, Isil Sakraker; Pérez-Ayúcar, Miguel; Powell, Richard W.; Putnam, Zachary R.; Rea, Jeremy R.; Reddy, Sachin Alexander; Reimer, Thomas; Saikia, Sarag J.; Sayanagi, Kunio M.; Schuster, Stephan; Scully, J. E. C.; Skulsky, David; Sostaric, Ronald R.; Sotin, C.; Tackett, Ben; Venkatapathy, Ethiraj; Wercinski, Paul; Wilder, Michael C.; Wright, Michael J.; Young, Cindy L.

doi:10.3847/25c2cfeb.4b23741d

Cited by 5 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…Figure 1 shows the enormous advantage offered by low-ballistic coefficient systems for Venus entry. The low-ballistic coefficient system and has applications for delivering independent small landers and orbiters to Venus [17], small satellites as part larger missions [18], and atmospheric sample return missions from the Venusian clouds [19].…”

Section: Venusmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Rocket Lab has also made the commitment to fly a private mission to deliver a 20 kg probe for in-situ sampling of the Venusian clouds, also using the Photon high-performance spacecraft (shown in Figure 1) with an estimated budget under $10 million [3]. Orbit insertion, particularly to low-circular orbits requires significant propellant and can require about 20-40% of the Photon wet mass and present a significant challenge for small missions [4,5]. Aerocapture can be used to eliminate the substantial propellant need for orbit insertion [6,7].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

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].…”

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: Venusmentioning

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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“…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%

Advancing the Scientific Frontier with Increasingly Autonomous Systems

Amini¹,

Azari²,

Bhaskaran³

et al. 2020

Preprint

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“…Compared to orbit maneuvers that use only thrusters, aerocapture can save a lot of fuel, in return the spacecraft can carry more payloads to complete more scientific exploration missions. Since the concept of aerocapture was invented, much research [1][2][3][4][5][6][7] has been done to analyze and prove its feasibility and advantages in interplanetary flight and deep space exploration. Unlike aerobraking, which needs to pass through the atmosphere many times, aerocapture can greatly shorten the orbital transfer time, on the other hand the spacecraft needs to bear higher peak heat flow and the process is more dangerous.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Robust Near-Optimal Aerocapture Guidance Method Based on Saturation Function

et al. 2022

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Aerocapture maneuvers refer to a single atmospheric crossing to deplete orbital energy and establish a closed orbit. During the atmospheric flight, adjusting the spacecraft’s vertical lift component in an optimal manner, bang-bang bank control, will minimize the propulsion fuel consumption required to establish the target orbit. However, such methods have been suffering from the performance’s oversensitivity to the control’s instantaneous switching time and poor robustness. To address these problems, we propose a new numerical predictor-corrector guidance algorithm based on the saturation function profile in this paper. The saturation function is used to basically simulate the bang-bang control structure, which enhances the algorithm’s robustness by reducing its dependence on the relevant parameters without losing too much optimality. Monte Carlo simulations in both Earth and Mars scenarios demonstrate the robustness, accuracy, and near-optimal performance of the proposed guidance method.

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Enabling and Enhancing Science Exploration Across the Solar System: Aerocapture Technology for SmallSat to Flagship Missions

Cited by 5 publications

References 12 publications

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

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

Advancing the Scientific Frontier with Increasingly Autonomous Systems

Robust Near-Optimal Aerocapture Guidance Method Based on Saturation Function

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