Related papers: Comparative Study of Planetary Atmospheric Uncerta…
Aerocapture is the technique of using planetary atmospheres to decelerate a spacecraft in a single pass to achieve nearly fuel-free orbit insertion. Aerocapture has been extensively studied since the 1980s but has never been flown yet. The…
Performing orbital insertion around Mars using aerocapture instead of a propulsive orbit insertion manoeuvre allows to save resources and/or increase the payload mass fraction. Aerocapture has never been employed to date because of the high…
The study of planetary atmospheres is critical to our understanding of the origin and evolution of the Solar System. The combined effect of various physical and chemical processes over billions of years have resulted in a variety of…
Aerocapture is a maneuver which uses aerodynamic drag to slow down a spacecraft in a single pass through the atmosphere. All planetary orbiters to date have used propulsive orbit insertion. Aerocapture is a promising alternative, especially…
Aerocapture is a technique which uses atmospheric drag to decelerate a spacecraft and achieve nearly fuel-free orbit insertion from an interplanetary trajectory. The present study performs a historical review of the field, and a…
This review presents an insight into our current knowledge of the atmospheres of the planets Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, the satellite Titan, and those of exoplanets. It deals with the thermal structure, aerosol…
In current models used to interpret exoplanet atmospheric observations, the planet mass is treated as a prior and is estimated independently with external methods, such as RV or TTV techniques. This approach is necessary as available…
Future missions to Mars and Venus will make use of aerobraking and aerocapture in order to gain mass through the saving of fuel at planetary arrival. So far only aerobraking has been demonstrated, if the Mars Premier project has paved the…
Since the beginning of robotic interplanetary exploration nearly six decades ago, successful atmospheric entry has been accomplished at Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, and Titan. More entry probe missions are planned to Venus, Titan, and…
We present results of an investigation into the formation of nitrogen-bearing molecules in the atmosphere of Titan. We extend a previous model (Li et al. 2015, 2016) to cover the region below the tropopause, so the new model treats the…
Thermal protection systems are a critical component of planetary exploration, enabling probes to enter the atmosphere and perform in-situ measurements. The aero-thermal conditions encountered during entry are destination and vehicle…
The upper atmospheres of Mars and Titan, as well as those on many other planetary bodies, exhibit significant density variations vs. altitude that are interpreted as gravity waves. Such data is then used to extract vertical temperature…
So far no designated mission to either of the two ice giants, Uranus and Neptune, exists. Almost all of our gathered information on these planets comes from remote sensing. In recent years, NASA and ESA have started planning for future…
Aerocapture consists of converting a hyperbolic approach trajectory into a captured target orbit utilizing the aerodynamic forces generated via a single pass through the atmosphere. Aerocapture guidance systems must be robust to significant…
Spacecraft entering Mars require precise navigation algorithms capable of accurately estimating the vehicle's position and velocity in dynamic and uncertain atmospheric environments. Discrepancies between the true Martian atmospheric…
Accurately determining escape rates from a planet's atmosphere is critical for determining its evolution. Escape can be driven by upward thermal conduction of energy deposited well below the exobase, as well as by non-thermal processes…
Characterising the properties of exoplanet atmospheres relies on several interconnected parameters, which makes it difficult to determine them independently. Planetary mass plays a role in determining the scale height of atmospheres,…
Conjunction assessment requires knowledge of the uncertainty in the predicted orbit. Errors in the atmospheric density are a major source of error in the prediction of low Earth orbits. Therefore, accurate estimation of the density and…
Over the last decade, precise exoplanet transmission spectroscopy has revealed the atmospheres of dozens of exoplanets, driven largely by observatories like the Hubble Space Telescope. One major discovery has been the ubiquity of…
The atmospheres of Mars and Titan are loaded with aerosols that impact remote sensing observations of their surface. Here we present the algorithm and the first applications of a radiative transfer model in spherical geometry designed for…