Aerocapture Enabled Fast Uranus Orbiter Missions

TL;DR

This paper proposes aerocapture-enabled trajectories for Uranus orbiters that significantly reduce mission duration from over a decade to 5-8 years, leveraging aerocapture to enable faster, more feasible missions to the outer Solar System.

Contribution

It introduces two novel aerocapture trajectories for Uranus missions, demonstrating substantial reductions in flight time compared to traditional propulsive methods.

Findings

Flight times reduced to 5-8 years from 13-15 years.

High arrival speeds enable effective aerocapture maneuvers.

Feasible launch mass with Falcon Heavy for these trajectories.

Abstract

At the far reaches of the outer Solar System, the ice giants remain the last class of planets yet to be studied using orbiters. The 2023-2032 Planetary Science Decadal Survey has underscored the importance of the ice giants in understanding the origin, formation, and evolution of our Solar System. The enormous heliocentric distance of Uranus presents considerable mission design challenges, the most important being able to reach Uranus within a reasonable time. The present study presents two examples of aerocapture enabled short flight time, fast trajectories for Uranus orbiter missions, and highlights the enormous benefits provided by aerocapture. The first is an EEJU trajectory with a launch opportunity in July 2031 with a flight time of 8 years. The second is an EJU trajectory with a launch opportunity in June 2034 with a flight time of only 5 years. Using the Falcon Heavy Expendable, the available launch capability is 4950 kg and 1400 kg respectively for the two trajectories. Both trajectories have a high arrival speed of 20 km/s, which provides sufficient corridor width for aerocapture. Compared to propulsive insertion architectures which take 13 to 15 years, the fast trajectories offer significant reduction in the flight time.