There was a project called "AFE" where aerocapture would have been demonstrated through a flight experiment. The vehicle was based upon a "ranked conic aeroshell". The aeroshell was actually built. Unfortunately there was a high level managment requirement that the thing be launched from the Space Shuttle. Consequently a simple flight experiment had to be man rated (can't have the thing blowing up in the cargo bay). This caused the project's cost to go exponential. After AFE got canned, they looked around for a whipping boy and a classmate of mine was chosen for the honor.
By the way, aerocapture is a very old concept. A von Braun / Robert Goddard
class genius named "Dean Chapman" wrote about it in a late 1950s NACA technical report. That technical report is considered a classic in the trade (Dean Chapman is another one of my heros).
Gary
Space/Science » in reply to No one has tried aerocapture yet
We almost did
The whole thread (30 posts)
- Orbiting but not Landing on Mars
- And What Are You Talking About With Regard To Launch Windows?
- It's Far Past Time You Read Something On Using Martian Resources Raoul
- "You need to take your return fuel with you to a Martian moon which means you also need the fuel to carry it. "
- re: It's Far Past Time You Read Something On Using Martian Resources Raoul
- The problems with using Martian resources for the return trip.