Feasibility Assessment of Magnetohydrodynamic Control for Aerocapture at Neptune

The Planetary Science Decadal Survey released in 2022 posed a mission to one of the Ice Giants as the top priority for flagship missions for NASA. However, current technologies limit the amount of scientific payload available for future Uranian and Neptunian missions due to the need for fuel for orbit insertion maneuvers. Thus, to maximize the scientific potential of future missions,
aerocapture has been heavily researched. While aerocapture simulations using only aerodynamic control have proven enabling for capturing around Ice Giants like Neptune, the deep atmospheric pass requires an aeroshell with robust thermal protection systems (TPS). Magnetohydrodynamically controlled (MHD) aerocapture serves as a potential improvement to the limitations of both
fully propulsive orbit insertion and aerodynamically controlled aerocapture. Using NASA tools for modeling planetary exploration missions, both the aerodynamic-only and magnetohydrodynamic aerocapture methods were simulated and compared for identical missions to an Ice Giant, with Neptune chosen as the target planet. After applying a guidance algorithm for both methods, the results showed that magnetohydrodynamics has not only the control authority to successfully capture around Neptune, but also the
unique advantage of a shallower atmospheric pass, decreasing the maximum heat load and the required TPS mass.