Questions tagged [aerobraking]
Questions related to causing a spacecraft to slow down by flying through a planet's atmosphere to produce aerodynamic drag.
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Could you skim along the Karman line using a parafoil?
Imagine a person just wearing a spacesuit equipped with a parafoil returning from low orbit. Could they maintain altitude starting at 7.8 km/s above or along the Karman line slowly losing speed—maybe ...
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Design constrains for non-aerobraking re-entry vehicle?
Currently, getting from orbit to ground always involves aerobraking to shed lots of orbital velocity. This is a dangerous, stressful maneuver which also cannot be repeated with same vehicle due to the ...
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Starting refueled in LEO, how much payload could a heat-protected Starship softly land on Mercury after a gravity assist from Venus?
This question may be a crucial follow-up to this one because in this answer it is calculated that the payload to Mercury without a gravity assist would probably be minimal, so if already a moderate ...
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Would it be feasible to decelerate a crewed vehicle from ~25 km/s only using the atmosphere of Mars (in the context of an "express transit")?
I boldly assumed it would some day be possible to accelerate a crewed vehicle from a refueling station (LEO, GEO, Moon orbit?) to ~35-40 km/s (with several stages) relative to Mars, so it would make ...
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How did Venus Express' periapsis decay so quickly?
ESA's Venus Express ran out of propellant in late 2014 and has probably decayed out of orbit since then.
A timeline of events from my research for my answer to Are there currently any spacecraft in ...
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Starship reentry velocity on return from Mars: What are the options
What are the reentry velocity options available to Starship on return from Mars? I assume the approach will be significantly faster than a Hohmann transfer orbit due to timing of transfer windows and ...
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Do aeroshells need to be super smooth to survive atmospheric entry?
IIRC, one of the arguments against Shuttle Columbia's hole being repaired was that the repair would not be smooth. Apparently, the heat shielding relied on a sensitive boundary layer. Even a small ...
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Do exploration spacecraft enter Mars atmosphere against Mars rotation, or on the same direction?
I can't find information on which side of mars do probes usually enter.
I suppose that probes do not enter perpendicular to the surface. They are usually represented as entering somewhat tangentially ...
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What is the minimum atmospheric pressure required for aerobraking?
Answers and comments to this question about the advantages of a Mars colony over a Moon colony refer to the fact that aerobraking can be used on Mars but not the Moon. So the pressure on Mars, $\...
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How do we control a Reentering Capsule in the denser part of the atmosphere?
My question is: How do we control a Reentering Capsule in the denser part of the atmosphere? How does the aerodynamics of the Reentry vehicle workout?
In other words, how does a reentry module ...
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Have studies / worked examples, including mass figures, been published for these reentry methods for reusable upper stages?
(Related: is there a general rule of thumb for thermal protection systems?)
For a fully-reusable launch vehicle to be developed, we need a lightweight thermal protection system and method for (...
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Is aerobraking used for orbit insertion for each planet with an atmosphere?
Probes designed to orbit planets can use aerobraking to help orbit insertion (as it has already been done for Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter or Mars Global Surveyor). Such techniques could be used for ...
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Two-step reentry from Moon/Mars
There are a number of questions addressing the desirability and/or feasibility of a slower reentry from Earth orbit in order to reduce thermal load. At least most of them run into the problem that ...
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Sharp nose or Blunt nose vehicle for higher reentry speeds?
Hypersonic Technology Vehicle 2 (HTV-2) is a crewless, experimental hypersonic glide vehicle rocket glider developed as part of the DARPA Falcon Project capable of flying at 13,000 mph (Mach 17.53, 21,...
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The aerodynamic stability of the truncated cone shape
Can someone explicate the stability of the truncated cone shape of the reentry vehicle of a spaceship when moving in the atmosphere with its bottom facing forward? It seems counterintuitive that it ...
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