Date of Award

Summer 8-2024

Document Type

Master's Project

Department

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering

Program/Concentration

Aerospace Engineering

Committee Director

Brett Newman

Committee Member

Gene Hou

Committee Member

Colin Britcher

Abstract

Several trajectory simulation tools are used to model different phases of the Approach, Entry, Descent and Landing (AEDL) phase of NASA’s Mars Sample Return Campaign. Working towards a single simulation tool that models all AEDL phases, this project utilizes Program to Optimize Simulated Trajectories II to simulate the 72-hour exoatmospheric phase of AEDL up till the point of Earth atmospheric entry. This involves developing a new feature for POST2 that captures the forces and moments caused by solar radiation pressure (SRP). Generalizing the vehicle geometry as a combination of primitive shapes, a generalized SRP module was created and implemented into POST2. Trajectory solutions produced by POST2 were then successfully compared against independent solutions produced by the trajectory tool 42.

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