Design Reference Aerocapture Mission Architectures for Future Planetary Science Missions

Aerocapture is the technique of using the planet's atmosphere to decelerate a spacecraft in a single pass to achieve almost propellant-free orbit insertion. The technique has been extensively studied since the 1980s but has never been flown yet despite all the system-level technologies being considered ready for an operational mission. The entry conditions encountered during the maneuver are strongly destination dependent, as is the performance benefit offered by aerocapture. Aerocapture is applicable to all atmosphere-bearing destinations, with the exception of Jupiter and Saturn, whose extreme aerothermal conditions make it infeasible. There are two main classes of missions for which aerocapture has been most studied in recent works, one for small satellite missions to Mars and Venus, and the other for large Flagship-class missions to the outer Solar System including Titan, Uranus, and Neptune. The report compiles a list of design reference missions at Venus, Earth, Mars, Titan, Uranus, and Neptune. These reference missions can provide an initial assessment of the feasibility of aerocapture for a proposed mission and provide initial baseline values for more detailed system studies.