Engineering-LevelModelAtmospheresForTitanandMars.docVIP

Engineering-Level Model Atmospheres For Titan and Mars C. G. Justus(1), Aleta Duvall(1), Vernon W. Keller(2) (1)Computer Sciences Corporation, P.O.Box 240005, Huntsville, AL 35824 (USA), Jere.Justus@msfc.nasa.gov, Aleta.Duvall@msfc.nasa.gov (2)NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, ED44, Marshall Space Flight Center, AL 35812 (USA), Vernon.W.Keller@nasa.gov ABSTRACT An engineering-level atmospheric model for Titan has been developed for use in NASA’s systems analysis studies of aerocapture and entry, descent and landing (EDL) applications in potential missions to Titan. Analogous to highly successful Global Reference Atmospheric Models for Earth (GRAM) and Mars (Mars-GRAM), the new model is called Titan-GRAM. Like GRAM and Mars-GRAM, an important feature of Titan-GRAM is its ability to simulate quasi-random perturbations for Monte Carlo analyses in developing guidance, navigation and control algorithms, and for thermal systems design. Titan-GRAM capabilities and sample results are presented. Capabilities of Mars-GRAM especially related to EDL applications are also presented and illustrated. 1. INTRODUCTION Similar to the Global Reference Atmospheric Model (GRAM) for Earth [1], Mars Global Reference Atmospheric Model (Mars-GRAM 2001) is an engineering-level atmospheric model, widely used for diverse mission applications [2, 3]. From 0-80 km altitude, Mars-GRAM is based on NASA Ames Mars General Circulation Model (MGCM) [4], while above 80 km it is based on Mars Thermospheric General Circulation Model [5]. Mars-GRAM 2001 and MGCM use surface topography from Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiting Laser Altimeter (MOLA) [6]. Recently, engineering-level atmospheric models for Titan and Neptune have been developed [7] for use in NASA’s systems analysis studies of aerocapture applications in missions to outer planets. These new models are called Titan-GRAM and Neptune-GRAM (Neptune-GRAM is not discussed here in detail). Like GRAM and Mars-GRAM, an importan