AAS 98-146

MARS PATHFINDER ATMOSPHERIC ENTRY RECONSTRUCTION

D. A. Spencer - Jet Propulsion Laboratory; R. C. Blanchard - NASA Langley Research Center; S. W. Thurman - JPL; R. D. Braun - NASA LaRC; C.-Y. Peng, P. H. Kallemeyn - JPL

Abstract

Five minutes after entering the Martian atmosphere, the Mars Pathfinder spacecraft impacted the surface of the Red Planet, and bounced and rolled to a stop. This paper presents the results of an effort to reconstruct the Pathfinder atmospheric entry trajectory, and assess the performance of the Entry, Descent and Landing (EDL) system. In addition, a reconstruction of the Mars atmosphere profile encountered by the Pathfinder entry vehicle will be presented.

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