Orbit Plane Rotation Using Aerocapture

What is it about?

Changing the plane of a spacecraft’s orbit often requires prohibitively large amounts of fuel. We show how aerocapture, a technique involving the use of aerodynamic drag to decelerate a spacecraft into a captured orbit with minimal fuel burn, can be used to modify the angle of the orbit plane. The proposed maneuver can allow mission designers to adjust the captured orbit in ways that are not possible with traditional interplanetary orbit targeting methods.

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