Robert W Maddock

• National Aeronautics and Space Administration

View Video Presentation: https://doi.org/10.2514/6.2022-1693.vid Plume-surface interactions between a rocket plume and the lunar surface will be studied in-situ during two of NASA’s upcoming Commercial Lunar Payload Services Program missions. The payload, Stereo Cameras for Lunar Plume-Surface Studies (SCALPSS), will employ a multiple-camera photog...

On 26 November 2018, the Interior Exploration Using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) lander successfully touched down on the surface of Mars. Over its more than seven year development, NASA Langley Research Center’s Program to Optimize Simulated Trajectories II (POST2) was used to assess the mission’s entry, descent, and...

The Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) mission touched down in Elysium Planitia on 26 November 2018, becoming NASA’s eighth successful entry, descent, and landing (EDL) at Mars. InSight inherited the successful 2008 Phoenix (PHX) EDL system, flying a nonspinning, ballistic trajectory with a 70 de...

On 26 November 2018, the Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) lander successfully touched down on the surface of Mars. Program to Optimize Simulated Trajectories II (POST2) of NASA Langley Research Center was used during both project development and flight operations to assess the entry, descent, a...

NASA has used aerobraking at Mars and Venus to reduce the fuel required to deliver a spacecraft into a desired orbit compared to an all-propulsive solution. Although aerobraking reduces the propellant, it does so at the expense of mission duration, large staff, and DSN coverage. These factors make aerobraking a significant cost element in the missi...

When entering orbit about a planet or moon with an appreciable atmosphere, instead of using only the propulsion system to insert the spacecraft into its desired orbit, aerodynamic drag can be used after the initial orbit insertion to further decelerate the spacecraft. Several past NASA missions have used this aerobraking technique to reduce the fue...

The next important step in space exploration is the return of sample materials from extraterrestrial locations to Earth for analysis. Most mission concepts that return sample material to Earth share one common element: an Earth entry vehicle. The analysis and design of entry vehicles is multidisciplinary in nature, requiring the application of mass...

An Autonomous Aerobraking software system is currently under development with support from the NASA Engineering and Safety Center (NESC) that would move typically ground-based operations functions to onboard an aerobraking spacecraft, reducing mission risk and mission cost. The suite of software that will enable autonomous aerobraking is the Autono...

The ALHAT project is an agency-level program involving NASA centers, academia, and industry, with a primary goal to develop a safe, autonomous, precision-landing system for robotic and crew-piloted lunar and planetary descent vehicles. POST2 is used as the 6DOF descent and landing trajectory simulation for determining integrated system performance...

Program to Optimize Simulated Trajectories II (POST2) is used as a basis for an end-to-end descent and landing trajectory simulation that is essential in determining design and integration capability and system performance of the lunar descent and landing system and environment models for the Autonomous Landing and Hazard Avoidance Technology (ALHA...

This presentation was part of the session : Sample Return Challenges Sixth International Planetary Probe Workshop In recent years the sample return mission concept has gradually grown increased favor over in-situ missions. The successes of the Stardust and Genesis missions have clearly highlighted the advantages of bringing samples back to Earth wh...

A robotic flyby mission to the planet Pluto is being planned for launch early in the next decade. The spacecraft will continue on out of the solar system in an almost radial direction traveling at about four AU per year and begin transiting the Kuiper Belt shortly after Pluto encounter. Recent discoveries and observations of Kuiper Belt objects hav...

This paper discusses the trajectory design of a Europa orbiter mission intended to find out if Europa is a possible habitat for extraterrestrial life. Getting into orbit at Europa is difficult; the simplest trajectory design (a direct Hohmann-type transfer to Jupiter followed by an immediate insertion into orbit at Europa) requires more than 5.5 km...

NASA's Outer Planets/Solar Probe Project established in early 1998 is composed of three challenging and exciting missions which span the far reaches of the solar system: Europa Orbiter; Pluto-Kuiper Express; and Solar Probe. In order to ensure success of each of these missions, under stringent mass, power, and cost constraints, the Outer Planets/So...

Three radii from the surface of the Sun...more natural radiation around Jupiter than would be encountered immediately following a nuclear war... to the farthest planet and beyond... these challenges are faced by the three "Ice & Fire" missions: Solar Probe, Europa Orbiter, and Pluto-Kuiper Express. These three missions will be beneficiaries of the...

The Ice and Fire Preproject defined the first mission set of the Outer Planets/Solar Probe Program consisting of the Europa Orbiter, Pluto-Kuiper Express, and Solar Probe missions. The development of low cost, high performance spacecraft and propulsion systems, in conjunction with the desire to minimize launch vehicle requirements, has been a treme...

The icy moon of Europa is a hot topic in planetary exploration. This paper discusses the trajectory design of a Europa orbiter mission intended to find out if Europa is a possible habitat for extraterrestrial life. Getting into orbit at Europa is difficult; the simplest trajectory design (a direct Hohmann-type transfer to Jupiter followed by an imm...

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Tennessee, Knoxville, 1994. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 87-92).