AEROFAST: Aerocapture for future space transportation
- Paper number
IAC-08.D2.10.6
- Author
Ms. BONNEFOND Francine, EADS Astrium SAS, France
- Year
2008
- Abstract
AEROFAST: AEROcapture for Future spAce tranSporTation Francine BONNEFOND – Philippe AUGROS – Jean-Marc BOUILLY – Jean-Claude PAULAT – Stéphane REYNAUD – Uwe WESTERHOLT EADS SPACE Transportation - BP 11, 33 165 SAINT-MÉDARD-EN-JALLES Cedex, France Francine.bonnefond@astrium.eads.net Aerocapture is a flight manoeuvre that takes place at very high speeds within a planet’s atmosphere that provides a change in velocity using aerodynamic forces (in contrast to propulsive thrust) for orbit insertion. Interest in developing aerocapture technology stems from the solar system exploration needs: sample return missions and future manned missions require spacecraft to enter and manoeuvre in a planet’s atmosphere in order to meet their mission objectives. This transportation technology becomes really attractive with respect to propulsion when the delta-V necessary for orbit insertion becomes greater than 1 km/s, which is the case for these future missions. Aerocapture technology is at TRL (technology readiness level) 2 to 3 in Europe. In order to use the aerocapture technology for operational missions while mitigating future development risks, the TRL of such a technology must reach the level 6. TRL6 shall be reached through a flight demonstration preferably performed with the Martian conditions in order to prepare for the future MSR missions (first potential missions to use the aerocapture technology). In order to prepare for such a mission demonstration the AEROFAST project proposed in the frame of the European Community Framework n°7 aims at reaching a TRL 3 to 4 for this technology. Aerocapture is very much a system level technology where individual disciplines such as system analysis and integrated vehicle design, aerodynamics, aerothermal environments, thermal protection systems (TPS), guidance, navigation and control (GN&C), instrumentation need to be integrated and optimized to meet mission specific requirements. The aim of this paper is to present the project and provide a status with respect to the different objectives of the project: 1. OBJ1: Define a project of aerocapture demonstration (planet to be assessed), 2. OBJ2: Make a significant progress in space transportation by increasing the TRL of the planetary relative navigation and the aerocapture algorithm up to 5. 3. OBJ3: Build a breadboard to test in real time the pre-aerocapture and aerocapture GNC algorithms, 4. OBJ4: Demonstrate/prototype the thermal protection system for such a mission, 5. OBJ5: Define on-board instrumentation for aerocapture phase recovery.
- Abstract document
- Manuscript document
(absent)