Исследование баллистического режима спуска маневренного посадочного аппарата на поверхность Венеры

Abstract

At present, various projects to continue fundamental investigations of Venus are considered in Russia and abroad. It means that the issue of developing a landing module to reach the surface of the planet becomes topical, as the module might provide access to the regions most attractive in terms of research. We propose to use a landing module of the lifting body type, which, as compared to a ballistic class module, is not unacceptably complicated in terms of design and at the same time features a lift-to-drag ratio adequate for solving manoeuvring problems arising in the process of descent into the Venusian atmosphere to reach the target landing area. We consider potential descent trajectories available to a landing module of this type, including the possibility of performing a maximum lateral manoeuvre; we took into consideration its long-period trajectories characterised by multiple re-entries into the dense atmosphere and compared these trajectories to the descent trajectory of a conventional ballistic class landing module. We show that using a manoeuvrable craft expands the selection of potential landing regions, as well as reduces loads and broadens the scope of scientific problems to be solved and studies to be undertaken