Towards Real-Time and High-Precision Trajectory Simulation for Entry, Descent, and Landing Systems, Year 1

Human class Mars missions are contingent upon significant breakthroughs in entry, descent, and landing (EDL) systems. An order-of-magnitude increase in payload capability and nearly three orders-of-magnitude reduction in landing radius over the current state-of-the-art (SOTA) required to safely support a crew of four on the Martian surface. Predicting a vehicle’s landing radius requires simulating a large number of potential trajectories with time-consuming, high-fidelity EDL models to understand the impact of uncertainties in flight conditions. The proposed research advances the current SOTA for EDL technology with an innovative approach for rapid, high-precision trajectory simulation under uncertainty. Utilize multi-fidelity uncertainty quantification (UQ) method to fuse predictions from a well-established, high-fidelity EDL code [1] with estimates from lower fidelity models (e.g., machine learning) Leverage recently developed software from LaRC’s High Performance Computing (HPC) incubator [2] and couple it with capabilities developed by JHU [3] This framework provides the efficiency of low-fidelity models along with the accuracy guarantees of the high-fidelity model to yield a high-performance and precision software tool for EDL

This framework provides the efficiency of low-fidelity models along with the accuracy guarantees of the high-fidelity model to yield a high-performance and precision software tool for EDL

This is a mature technology (TRL 7+) — the realistic path in is usually NASA's Technology Transfer Program: licensing an existing NASA patent, or a Space Act Agreement to use NASA facilities/expertise directly. NASA also runs a startup licensing program with no upfront fee for companies formed to commercialize a specific NASA technology.

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