Earth atmospheric entry studies for manned Mars missions

Abstract

Decelerations, heating rates, and total heat loads encountered when returning from Mars to earth at entry speeds of 12 km/sec to 16 km/sec are studied. For entry at 14 km/sec, it is found that a lift/drag ratio (L/D) of 0.5 is required to provide a guidance corridor margin near 1 deg for the specified deceleration limit of 5 g. For a blunted, raked cone with an L/D = 0.5, the peak heating rate near the aft end of the forebody varies from 0.14 to 0.23 kW/sq cm for laminar flow. If ablation triggers boundary layer transition, the peak heating can rise to 0.5 or up to 0.72 kW/sq cm. All heating rates are sufficiently high to make ablative heat shields necessary.