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Aerobraking Cost and Risk DecisionsFour missions have successfully employed aerobraking at Venus and Mars to reduce the spacecraft orbit period and achieve the desired orbit geometry. The propellant mass reductions enabled by the aerobraking technique allow the use of smaller launch systems, which translate to significant savings in launch costs for flight projects. However, there is a significant increase in mission risk associated with the use of aerobraking. Flying a spacecraft through a planetary atmosphere hundreds of times during months of around-the-clock operations places the spacecraft in harm's way, and is extraordinarily demanding on the flight team. There is a cost/risk trade that must be evaluated when a project is choosing between a mission baseline that includes aerobraking, or selecting a larger launch vehicle to enable purely propulsive orbit insertion. This paper provides a brief history of past and future aerobraking missions, describes the aerobraking technique, summarizes the costs associated with aerobraking, and concludes with a suggested methodology for evaluating the cost/risk trade when considering the aerobraking approach.
Document ID
20080045899
Acquisition Source
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Document Type
Preprint (Draft being sent to journal)
Authors
Spencer, David A.
(Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA, United States)
Tolson, Robert
(North Carolina State Univ. Hampton, VA, United States)
Date Acquired
August 24, 2013
Publication Date
October 18, 2006
Publication Information
Publication: Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets
Publisher: American Inst. of Aeronautics and Astronautics
Volume: 44
Issue: 6
Subject Category
Space Transportation And Safety
Meeting Information
Meeting: Space Systems Engineering Conference
Location: Atlanta, GA
Country: United States
Start Date: November 8, 2005
End Date: November 10, 2005
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Other
Keywords
risk analysis
aerobraking

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