(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2012-06)
Dutta, Soumyo; Mahzari, Milad; White, Todd R.; Braun, Robert D.
The Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission’s
instrumentation will enable accurate reconstruction of
the vehicle’s entry, descent, and landing (EDL)
performance including the trajectory, the observed
atmosphere, aerodynamics, aeroheating, and heatshield
material response. The objective of this paper is to
develop methodologies for an integrated approach to
the reconstruction of the vehicle’s EDL performance.
Two estimation approaches are presented: Serial and
Concurrent. The serial approach is demonstrated by
application to the Mars Pathfinder flight data and
estimating trajectory and aeroheating performance.