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Mars Aeroassist To Asteroids (Part 1) *
Walker s. Vaning**
Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to present some concepts involving Lifting-body spacecraft at Mars, to reach planetoids in the asteroid belt. This technique can reduce the total mission time by 1.88years compared to double Mars gravity assists. It can also enable many previously impractical flyby and orbiter mission to the comets and asteroids.
Analysis consist of patched conic segments from Earth to Mars; Mars outbound. Lift/Drag at Mars is the dependent variable resulting from matching the segments at Mars. The equations are available in the literature, but it is frequently desireable to perform calculations using the Mars ecliptic. Existing or near-term Liftingbody technology was assumed.
Mars Aeroassist (MAA) conditions can vary appreciably but Lift/Drag ratios in the range of .8 to 2.7 resulted for 6 cases: 3 Asteroid orbiters, 1 comet orbiter,2 multiple asteroid flyby missions. Velocities for MAA run from 4-G miles/second, quite comparable to Earth orbit (5mi/s), so eminently practical.Payloads run the gamut from 30% loss to 115~ gain.
Further intense work needs to be performed immediately in this area of MAA. Only software for the Mars 2x harmonic was available for this paper. Due to considerable demand, a sequal, using more complex orbits will soon follow. Hopefully others will also explore this promising new technique. In addition, it is hoped that a mission to orbit the comet Wild2 will be performed using the presented trajectory, as the payload is increased 115% from the best CRAF mission.
*Copyright 1993 by Walker S. Vaning. All rights reserved. Printed by the AAS with permission.
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