Single-Stage Drag Modulation GNC Performance for Venus Aerocapture Demonstration
- Creators
- Roelke, E.
- Braun, R. D.
- Werner, M. S.
Abstract
The future of space exploration is heavily reliant on innovative Entry, Descent, and Landing (EDL) technologies. One such innovation involves aeroassist technology, mainly aerocapture, which involves a single pass through the upper atmosphere of a planetary body from an incoming hyperbolic trajectory to capture into an elliptical orbit. Previous aerocapture guidance studies focused on lift modulation using reaction-control system (RCS) thrusters. This paper investigates the guidance law performance of drag-modulated aerocapture for a single, discrete, jettison event. Venus is selected as the target planet to observe performance in the most challenging environment. Three different guidance algorithms are studied, including a deceleration curve-fit, a pure state-predictor, and a numerical predictor-corrector utilizing both bisection and Newton-Raphson root-finding methods. The performance is assessed using Monte Carlo simulation methods. The deceleration curve-fit achieves a capture rate of over 55% for a 2000km apoapsis target and 1000km tolerance. For an entry flight-path-angle (EFPA) of -5.2°, the predictive algorithm achieves a 50% capture rate within 100km and over 90% within 250km. Finally, at the same EFPA the NPC using a Newton method attains >80% capture rate for all β₂/β₁ > 6 within 100km tolerance targeting 10000km. The largest source of error for these systems is the atmospheric density variation downstream of the jettison event.
Additional Information
© 2019 by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Inc. Published Online: 6 Jan 2019. The authors would like to thank the Jet Propulsion Laboratory for funding this research during the 2017-2018 Fiscal Year.Attached Files
Accepted Version - Roelke_SciTech2019.pdf
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Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 109788
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20210713-173210500
- JPL
- Created
-
2021-07-13Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
-
2021-07-14Created from EPrint's last_modified field
- Other Numbering System Name
- AIAA Paper
- Other Numbering System Identifier
- 2019-0016