Inflatable devices for planetary aerocapture and aerobraking manoeuvres

Abstract

Future missions to Mars and Venus will make use of aerobraking and aerocapture in order to gain mass through the saving of fuel at planetary arrival. So far only aerobraking has been demonstrated, if the Mars Premier project has paved the way for aerocapture, no demonstration was performed due to the project interruption. The use of these techniques induces additional constraints for planetary probes, since additional heating and mechanical loads have to be carefully managed. Moreover, aerocapture requires a high level of accuracy for the Guidance Navigation and Control aspects, since a pass at an altitude of the atmosphere with a different density could lead to the vehicle destruction. This document surveys the existing state-of-the-art on inflatable devices (including ballutes, sails, or inflatable heat-shield capsule) for orbital manoeuvres at planetary arrival.