What is it about?
We show that the nature of the soil at a landing site for re-entry vehicles can have a profound influence on the volume or mass available to a sample return mission and, therefore, it is worth characterising it properly, rather than relying on generic soil data from other sites.
Featured Image
Why is it important?
Reducing overall mission size and increasing return sample volume are key determinants for sample return mission viability - technically and financially. Thus, every facet, even those not usually considered, should be examined when defining the mission.
Perspectives
We noticed that standard practice in re-entry or sample return mission design is to rely on data from a single location on planet Earth when sizing the landing and energy absorption system, resulting in potentially lost mass margins for the mission through over-design.
Sean Tuttle
Sigma Space Systems
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Influence of Landing Site Geology on Reentry Spacecraft Design, Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets, May 2020, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA),
DOI: 10.2514/1.a34549.
You can read the full text:
Contributors
The following have contributed to this page
