Aerobraking in a dusty Martian atmosphereThe effects of dust particle impacts on the erosion of the heat shield were estimated for a 26 m diameter aerobraking vehicle entering the Mars atmosphere at 8.6 km/sec. An explicit Navier-Stokes code was used to compute the flow field about the vehicle for the actual Martian atmospheric composition at a speed of 7.5 km/sec. The deceleration and melting of the dust particles within the forebody shock-layer was computed for dust spherules having initial diameters from 3 to 10 microns. Two heat shield materials were considered: Shuttle tiles with glassy surfaces and a low-density ablator known as Avcoat.
Document ID
19900051348
Acquisition Source
Legacy CDMS
Document Type
Conference Paper
Authors
Chang, I-Dee (Stanford University CA, United States)
Tauber, Michael (NASA Ames Research Center Moffett Field, CA, United States)
Papadopoulos, Periklis (Stanford Univ. CA, United States)