Quantitative assessment of the mass-saving derived from Mars aerocapture maneuvers

Aerocapture maneuver represents one of the most disrupting idea in space missions as it allows for significant mass-savings by avoiding the use of propellant in orbit insertion maneuvers. Generally, in the literature, there are not many works that quantify the mass-benefit of an aerocapture maneuver. For this reason, the aim of this study is to provide a quantification of the propellant mass-saving and the increase of the payload with respect to a mission that took place between 2013 and 2014 (MAVEN mission). This mission involved an insertion to a Mars orbit through a common propulsive manuever. Two different aerocapture trajectories were considered to obtain arrival orbit with a period of about 35 hours and an alternative one with a period of 4.5 hours. These two aerocapture maneuvers provide a mass saving due to unused propellant of 738.07 kg in the first case and 1281.15 kg in the second. The increase in payload capacity was calculated while also considering the additional weight of an inflatable shield used in the aerocapture maneuver. Both the two aerocapture maneuvers have offered a significant payload increase for the same initial mission mass (up to 1546.38%).