Assessment of Aeroassist Orbital Maneuver Technologies for Next Mars Exploration

抄録

In this article, preliminary feasibility assessment of aeroassist systems for JAXA's future Mars Exploration has been conducted. The aerobraking technology is found to bring about an increase in the payload ratio by considerable reduction of the propellant mass required for orbital descent after propulsive orbital insertion. The aerocapture technology, if accuracy in both the interplanetary orbit determination and guidance is improved, is shown to achieve a remarkable increase of the payload mass using the state-of-the-art technologies. Discussions are made on the guided entry systems which are expected to realize better landing mark precision than obtained by the ballistic flight.