Coupled Analysis of Aerodynamics, Deformation and Motion for Mars Probe with Flexible Surface in Upper Atmosphere

Abstract

These days, spacecrafts using membrane structures, such as a solar sail, membrane solar panels and so on, have been attracting attention for the use in deep space exploration missions. At the orbit insertion with the aerocapture technique, the membrane structure is expected to work as an efficient decelerator with a large area and small mass. However, its flexible structure causes difficulty in the trajectory analysis and the evaluation of the success rate of the aerocapture because its easily deformed shape as well as the uncertainty in the atmospheric properties significantly degrade the reliability for estimation of the aerodynamic forces, the spacecraft motion and the trajectory. To overcome these problems, the coupled analysis code of the aerodynamics, the structural deformation and the spacecraft motion was developed using the particle based method. In this paper, the method and the validation studies were explained in detail. The simulation results for a solar-sail-type spacecraft flying in the upper atmosphere of Mars for the aerocapture were presented.