Feasibility of MHD Aerobraking for Use in Martian Atmospheric Entry

Landing on Mars is one of the great challenges for the coming decades of spaceflight, specifically the ability to land heavier payloads at higher altitudes and from faster entry speeds. To accomplish this, new aerodeceleration technology will need to be validated and certified. One such technology may be magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) aerobraking. This paper investigates the feasibility of such a technology in the context of Martian entry, specifically examining the strength of the interaction between the applied magnetic field and the ionised vehicle shock layer (including the effects of non-equilibrium chemistry behind the shock) computed throughout the interesting range of Mars atmosphere and entry speeds, and the effect of MHD on entry vehicle trajectories. The results in this paper show that MHD aerobraking is predicted to provide significant drag enhancement at flight speeds above 6km/s velocity. For any given entry speed above 6km/s, the effect of MHD aerobraking is to enable trajectories that closely conform to the case of 6km/s entry speeds for altitudes below 60km. Results presented clearly define a design and research space for future work to refine and validate methods and results as well as expand the current understanding of the MHD phenomenon for use in the Martian context.