Mars orbit rendezvous strategy for the mars 2003/2005 sample return mission

摘要

The baseline scenario for the mars 2003/2005 Sample Return Mission utilizes Mars orbit rendezvousto retrieve two orbiting sample canisters containing Martian surface material. The two canisters, placed into Mars orbit by Mars ascent vehicles carried on landers launched in 2003 and 2005, will be retrieved by an orbiter launched in 2005 and returned to Earth in 2008. Rendezvous operations last for approximately one year and are divided into three phases: the preliminary (search and orbit determination) phase, the intermediate (orbit matching) phase, and the terminal (proximity operations and capture) phase. The focus of this paper is on the intermediate redezvous phase. During intermediate rendezvous, nodal phasing orbits are used to significantly reduce the DELTAV required to align the orbit planes of the orbiter and the sample canister. Preliminary analyses have shown that the total DELTAV required for intermediate rendezvous (to retrieve two sample canisters) is approximately 478 m/s (99