Modeling of Martian Dust Collection for Non-Stop Mars Sample Return Mission

Abstract

The Mars non-stop dust sample return project has come under review in the Mars Exploration mission at Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). In order to improve the feasibility of this project, the effect of the hot-temperature shock to dust particles was estimated in this work by calculating the particle motion, heat transfer, and thermal decomposition. The Martian dust distributions were examined, and it was found that there are a plenty of micron size dust particles between 30 and 50 km altitude depending on the weather condition. The computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and direct simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) flow field calculations were performed for a sphere-cone shape spacecraft entry in the Martian atmosphere at 35 and 45 km altitudes. In the high-temperature rarefied, low-Reynolds number conditions from subsonic to supersonic, three heat transfer models, the modified Kavanau, Koshmarov and Svirshevskii (K-S), and free-molecule (F-M) models, were compared for the estimation of the Martian dust heating when dust particles travel through the hot-temperature shock. It was found that differences between K-S and F-M models were small in the dust sample conditions, and these models predicted the higher particle temperature in the stagnation region than the modified Kavanau model. However, in the downstream region, the modified Kavanau model predicted higher particle temperature than the other two models. From the investigation of heat transfer and thermal decomposition of the dust particle, it was found that the micron-size dust particle sampling at these altitudes is possible and the dust constituents may be able to survive during the sampling.