Mission Analysis and Navigation Design for Uranus Atmospheric Flight
Emilie Bessette (Student TU Delft)
E. Mooij (TU Delft - Aerospace Engineering)
D.M. Stam (TU Delft - Aerospace Engineering)
More Info
expand_more
Other than for strictly personal use, it is not permitted to download, forward or distribute the text or part of it, without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), unless the work is under an open content license such as Creative Commons.
Abstract
We present a 3 Degrees of Freedom mission design and analysis for in-situ probing of Uranus' atmosphere consisting of two un-propelled gliders and one orbiting spacecraft in continuous line of sight. We focus on the study of the gliders' navigation and science modules. Because of the lack of a Global Navigation Satellite System around Uranus and the ineffective use of optical sensors due to the planet's large distance to the Sun and high atmospheric opacity, the post-processing relation between the vehicles' estimated state and measured scientific data is investigated to yield accurate state estimations. In-situ probing by the two gliders will make it possible to measure spatially variable atmospheric properties over a flight duration of up to 12 Earth days, as compared to a few hours for a conventional descent probe. Future work will include a 6 Degrees of Freedom simulation of the vehicles' flight, the chosen planet's wind model, a Flush Air Data Sensor as an additional navigation sensor, and a band-pass filter to reduce the estimated variables' noise.