Atmospheric environment during maneuvering descent from Martian orbit

This paper presents an analysis of the atmospheric maneuvering capability of a vehicle designated to land on the Martian surface, together with an analysis of the entry environment encountered by the vehicle. A maximum lift/drag ratio of 2.3 was used for all trajectory calculations. The maximum achievable lateral ranges varied from about 3400 km to 2500 km for entry velocities of 5 km/s (from a highly elliptical Martian orbit) and 3.5 km/s (from a low-altitude lower-speed orbit), respectively. It is shown that the peak decelerations are an order of magnitude higher for the 5-km/s entries than for the 3.5-km/s entries. The vehicle entering at 3.5 km/s along a gliding trajectory encountered a much more benign atmospheric environment. In addition, the glider's peak deceleration was found to be only about 0.7 earth g, making the shallow flight path ideal for manned vehicles whose crews might be physically weakened by the long voyage to Mars.