Two primary simulations have been developed and are being updated for the Mars Science Laboratory entry, descent, and landing. The high-fidelity engineering end-to-end entry, descent, and landing simulation is based on NASA Langley Research Center's Program to Optimize Simulated Trajectories II and the end-to-end realtime, hardware-in-the-loop simulation test bed, which is based on NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Dynamics Simulator for Entry, Descent, and Surface landing. The status of these Mars Science Laboratory entry, descent, and landing end-to-end simulations at this time is presented. Various models, capabilities, as well as validation and verification for these simulations, are discussed. Nomenclature decln star = angle between the spacecraft subplanet radius vector and equatorial plane gcrad = geocentric radius to spacecraft hgtagl = height above ground level rcalc = calculated radius to surface α = spacecraft-center-surface angle (angle between gcrad and rcalc) β = center-spacecraft-subsurface angle (angle between gcrad and hgtagl) θ = center-surface-spacecraft angle (angle between rcalc and hgtagl)
Program to Optimize Simulated Trajectories II (POST2) is used as a basis for an end-toend descent and landing trajectory simulation that is essential in determining design and integration capability and system performance of the lunar descent and landing system and environment models for the Autonomous Landing and Hazard Avoidance Technology (ALHAT) project. The POST2 simulation provides a six degree-of-freedom capability necessary to test, design and operate a descent and landing system for successful lunar landing. This paper presents advances in the development and model-implementation of the POST2 simulation, as well as preliminary system performance analysis, used for the testing and evaluation of ALHAT project system models.
Nomenclature
An investigation of the aerothermodynamic environment of the Huygens entry probe has been conducted. A Monte Carlo simulation of the trajectory of the probe during entry into Titan's atmosphere was performed to identify a worst-case heating rate trajectory. Flowfield and radiation transport computations were performed at points along this trajectory to obtain convective and radiative heat-transfer distributions on the probe's heat shield. This investigation identified important physical and numerical factors, including atmospheric CH 4 concentration, transition to turbulence, numerical diffusion modeling, and radiation modeling, which strongly influenced the aerothermodynamic environment.
Nomenclature
Flight data from an entry, descent, and landing (EDL) sequence can be used to reconstruct the vehicle's trajectory, aerodynamic coefficients and the atmospheric profile experienced by the vehicle. Past Mars missions have contained instruments that do not provide direct measurement of the freestream atmospheric conditions. Thus, the uncertainties in the atmospheric reconstruction and the aerodynamic database knowledge could not be separated. The upcoming Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) will take measurements of the pressure distribution on the aeroshell forebody during entry and will allow freestream atmospheric conditions to be partially observable. This data provides a mean to separate atmospheric and aerodynamic uncertainties and is part of the MSL EDL Instrumentation (
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