Search NASA⌕ Search

Engineering topics

Mcronald, Angus D.

Publications and source records attributed to Mcronald, Angus D..

6 records
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1992

Solar system 'fast mission' trajectories using aerogravity assist

Initial analyses of the aerogravity assist (AGA) delivery technique to solar system targets (and beyond) has been encouraging. Mission opportunities are introduced that do not exist with typical gravity assist trajectories and current launch capabilities. The technique has the most payoff for high-energy missions such as outer planet orbiters and flybys. The goal of this technique is to reduce the flight duration significantly and to eliminate propulsion for orbit insertion. The paper will discuss detailed analyses and parametric studies that consider launch opportunities for missions to the sun, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto using AGA at Venus and Mars.

Randolph, James E.↗
NASA NTRS1991

The design of hypersonic waveriders for aero-assisted interplanetary trajectories

The aerodynamic performance of a vehicle designed to execute an aerogravity assisted maneuver, which combines a gravitational turn with a low-drag atmosphere pass, is examined. The advantage of the aerogravity assisted maneuver, as opposed to a more traditional gravity-assist trajectory, is that, through the use of a controlled atmospheric flight, nearly any deflection angle around a gravitating body can be realized. This holds the promise of providing extremely large values of Delta V. The success of such a maneuver depends on being able to design a vehicle which can execute sustained atmospheric flight at Mach numbers in the range of 50 - 100 with minimal drag losses. Some simple modeling is used to demonstrate design rules for the design of such vehicles, and to estimate the deterioration of their performance during the flight. Two sample aerogravity-assisted maneuvers are detailed, including a close solar approach requiring modest Delta V, and a sprint mission to Pluto.

Lewis, Mark J.↗
NASA NTRS1990

Hypersonic maneuvering to provide planetary gravity assist

This paper examines the potential of aeroassist maneuvers at Mars for missions to the sun and to Pluto, using a high-lift/drag vehicle such as the waverider to perform an atmospheric 'fly-around' of Mars, in order to rotate the planetocentric velocity vector, thus adding to the rather small rotation due to gravity alone. A fly-around in one direction or the other can place the aphelion or the perihelion of the resulting orbit at the Mars distance, for missions toward the sun or toward Pluto, respectively. The parameters of such maneuvers are given as a function of earth launch velocity.

Mcronald, Angus D.↗
NASA NTRS1988

An analytic-geometric model of the effect of spherically distributed injection errors for Galileo and Ulysses spacecraft - The multi-stage problem

In previous work the problem of injecting the Galileo and Ulysses spacecraft from low earth orbit into their respective interplanetary trajectories has been discussed for the single stage (Centaur) vehicle. The central issue, in the event of spherically distributed injection errors, is what happens to the vehicle? The difficulties addressed in this paper involve the multi-stage problem since both Galileo and Ulysses will be utilizing the two-stage IUS system. Ulysses will also include a third stage: the PAM-S. The solution is expressed in terms of probabilities for total percentage of escape, orbit decay and reentry trajectories. Analytic solutions are found for Hill's Equations of Relative Motion (more recently called Clohessy-Wiltshire Equations) for multi-stage injections. These solutions are interpreted geometrically on the injection sphere. The analytic-geometric models compare well with numerical solutions, provide insight into the behavior of trajectories mapped on the injection sphere and simplify the numerical two-dimensional search for trajectory families.

Longuski, James M.↗