AEROSPACE ENGINEERING HW (Spacecraft Design)
- September 05, 2024/
1.Calculate the departure DV from Earth to Mars, assuming:
i)Hohmann transfer/patched conic approximation
ii)Departure from a 500 km circular orbit at Earth (ignore the Dv to launch from earth surface to LEO.)
2. At Mars, what is the required orbit insertion DV for capture into a 500 km altitude circular orbit? ●
3. What should the B-plane miss distance be to achieve the 500 km orbit altitude?
4. The spacecraft is intended to map the surface of Mars and is to be placed into a sun-synchronous orbit having a periapsis altitude of 500 km and period of 1/7 of a Martian day.
i) What is the Dv required to raise the orbit apoapsis from the circular parking orbit to the new elliptical orbit?
ii) What should the inclination be for the sun-synchronous orbit?
5. Since the spacecraft can only see (at best resolution) a small portion of the planet during a low altitude pass, it is planned to map essentially the entire planet by “walking” the periapsis around the planet. Each region of latitude will be mapped as the planet rotates beneath the orbit, and as the nodal line regresses. What initial value of the argument of periapsis should be selected to minimize the time required to conduct this mission? How long will it take to map the planet?
6.After the high-resolution mapping outlined in Problem 4 is completed, it is desired to change the plane of the orbit to an inclination of 90o so as to map the polar regions. What is the minimum DV required to effect this plane change in the most efficient manner? Explain.