Aerocapture as an Enhancing Option for Ice Giants Missions
Whitepaper #046 submitted to the Planetary Science and Astrobiology Decadal Survey 2023-2032. Topics: other planetary bodies: Uranus and Neptune; state of the profession; technology development
by Soumyo Dutta, Miguel Perez-Ayucar, Alberto Fedele, Roberto Gardi, Guillermo Dominguez Calabuig, Stephan Schuster, Jean-Pierre Lebreton, Hisham K Ali, Kunio Sayanagi, Isil Sakraker Ozmen, Thomas Reimer, Christophe Sotin, Jennifer Scully, Ye Lu, Sachin Alexander Reddy, James O. Arnold, Jay Feldman, Vandana Jha, Michael Wright, Jeffrey P Hill, Donald T. Ellerby, Michael Wilder, Antonella Alunni, Sarah D'Souza, Breanna Johnson, Ronald R. Sostaric, Daniel A. Matz, Robert W Moses, Cindy Young, Athul P. Girija, Sarag J. Saikia, Ping Lu, Tiago Hormigo, Gonçalo Afonso, Christopher Jelloian, Samuel W. Albert, Shayna Hume, Gilles Bailet, Zachary Putnam, Giusy Falcone, Craig Kluever, Jeremy R. Rea, Ian J. Cohen, Nikolas Trawny, George T. Chen, David A. Spencer, Gary A. Allen, Robert Dillman, Alex Austin, Ethiraj Venkatapahty, Michelle Munk, James A. Cutts, Marcus A. Lobbia, Adam P. Nelessen, Shyam Bhaskaran, Richard Powell, Rohan Deshmukh, Benjamin Tackett, Paul Wercinski, Rafael Lugo, and Alan M. Cassell
Published onMar 18, 2021
Aerocapture as an Enhancing Option for Ice Giants Missions
Traditional propulsive orbit insertion missions for Uranus and Neptune have 13–15 years of transit and require propellant loads that reduce scientific payload. Aerocapture uses aerodynamic forces generated within a planetary atmosphere to achieve orbit insertion, while increasing payload mass by more than 40% and reduce transit time by 15–30%.
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC-BY 4.0)
