Maximilian Maigler & Valentina Pessina (Institute of Plasmatechnology, UniBw M)
With the increased interest of both private and public institutions to make manned missions to Mars possible, it is crucial to accurately predict to aerothermal loads on the spacecraft during hypersonic reentry, furthermore due to trajectory analyses to control the point of landing on the surface using aerodynamic manipulators such as aerobrakes. Recreating the same conditions on the Earth using wind tunnel setups is nearly impossible due to the complex boundary conditions, hence numerical model is an essential part in understanding, predicting and optimizing the aerothermal features of the reentering spacecraft.
The plasma physics group at UniBw Munich focuses on evaluation of a numerical framework for modeling the rarefied and continuous hypersonic regimes during reentry. Real flight data from the Viking 1 mission in 1976 allowed computation of the lift and drag coefficients, which can be compared for various altitudes from 140 (vehicle traveling at Mach 25) down to 31 km (Mach 13). Excellent agreement with an average deviation of 1% is achieved throughout all investigated altitudes, allowing people from around the work to use the setup of open source software to research their own designs.