The benefits of using a hypersonic waverider for spacecraft trajectory modification are presented. A waverider is a hypersonic vehicle specifically designed so that the undersurface bow shock is attached to the leading edge, which provides for the highest known lift-to-drag ratios achievable at high Mach number flight. Several viable space missions are suggested which could use such configurations for low-drag aeroassisted maneuvers in planetary atmospheres. It is shown that large changes in the spacecraft velocity vector can be accomplished with acceptably small losses in energy due to drag using a waverider aeroshell. The primary advantage of an aeroassisted maneuver is suggested by comparison with a traditional gravity assist trajectory. Some scaling laws are presented for comparing waveriders designed for different planetary atmospheres, and it is shown that the compositional differences among the terrestrial planets have a minimal impact on waverider design.
Use of High Lift-to-Drag Hypersonic Vehicles for AERO-Assisted Orbital Maneuvering
1990
13 pages
Report
No indication
English
Low lift-to-drag aero-assisted orbit transfer vehicles
NTRS | 1984
|Hypersonic Forebody Lift-Induced Drag *
SAE Technical Papers | 1989
|THE USE OF HYPERSONIC WAVERIDERS FOR AERO-ASSISTED ORBITAL MANOEUVRING
Online Contents | 1993
|