Survey of Afterbody Aeroheating Flight Data for Planetary Probe Thermal Protection System Design

Aerothermodynamic Environments Definition for the Mars Science Laboratory Entry Capsule

“…In addition, few relevant engineering data have been collected from past successful entries into the Martian atmosphere 12 . Consequently, extensive use of Navier-Stokes computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is required to define the TPS flight design environments.…”

Laminar-Turbulent Transition on Reentry Capsules and Planetary Probes

“…Wright et al review aeroheating issues for the afterbodies of planetary probes [15,16]. Wright discusses the importance of transition to the prediction of afterbody heating, and cites references that suggest that transition occurred on the afterbodies of a Viking Lander and on the European ARD test vehicle.…”

Viking Afterbody Heating Computations and Comparisons to Flight Data

“…The amount of relevant afterbody heat flux data is sparse, especially at Mars entry conditions. The only other flight data that exists for a Mars entry is from Pathfinder 4 . Unfortunately, two of the three afterbody thermocouples failed during entry 38 .…”

“…Previous comparisons between CFD methods and Earth entry heat flux data showed promising results 4 . The current work is the first known documented effort to compare heating from modern CFD methods to Viking flight data 4 . Mars Pathfinder heat flux data also exist, but no effort has been made to measure CFD tools against the afterbody data.…”