Human missions to Mars represent the pinnacle of solar system exploration for the next half-
century. In addition to providing an exploration of Mars, such missions would represent an …

Mars has been explored historically only by robotic crafts, but a crewed mission
encompasses several new engineering challenges–high ballistic coefficient entry …

Abstract The Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Entry Descent and Landing Instrumentation
(MEDLI) suite on MSL entry vehicle heatshield has successfully returned pressure …

STARTING with the two Viking landers in 1976 and continuing through the successful Mars
Science Laboratory [1](MSL) landing in 2012, NASA and its partners have used similar …

There are many space navigations tasks that can benefit from 3D point cloud data, including
rendezvous and docking, precision landing, spacecraft servicing, and space surveillance …

The re-entry phase of a space vehicle demands thermal shielding against the heat elicited
by an aerodynamic heating process. The quantity of heat spawned in such process is close …

Abstract The Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Entry Descent and Landing Instrumentation
(MEDLI) suite on MSL entry vehicle heatshield has returned pressure, temperature, and …

The entry, descent, and landing (EDL) systems for the United States' six successful landings
on Mars and the 2011 Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) have all relied heavily on extensions …

Landing safety assessment is an integral element of the planning of a landing mission. This
thesis contributes to such assessment with the modelling and deduction of the functional …

Entry, descent, and landing (EDL) is especially challenging on Mars due the nature of the
planet. The atmosphere on Mars is too thin (approximately 1% of Earth's density) to provide …