10.1016/j.ast.2026.111671">
 

Preliminary 3- and 6-Degree-of-Freedom Investigation of Aerobraking to Support Cislunar Operations

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-23-2026

Abstract

The first aerobraking experiment occurred in 1991 as part of the Hiten satellite’s cislunar survey mission. Although making only two trans-atmospheric passes to reduce its apogee altitude, the success of Hiten’s experiment spurred the implementation of aerobraking by Magellan in 1993 and subsequent Mars missions starting in the late 1990s. This paper investigates the Hiten aerobraking experiment from the perspective of both 3- and 6-degree-of-freedom analysis with the inclusion J 4 gravitational and lunisolar perturbations in order to understand the complexity and sensitivity of aerobraking maneuvers in Earth’s atmosphere. Alternative satellites of varying size are also studied to determine their capability of maintaining the two Hiten aerobraking flight profiles. So as to examine a wide range of vehicle mass and drag reference area options, the Magellan and Hubble Space Telescope (HST) satellites are modeled and their aerobraking performance analyzed with varying target perigee altitudes for hypothetical cases of cislunar orbital operations in the Earth-Moon system. 3DOF and 6DOF analysis yields minimal deviation when reconstructing the historical Hiten aerobraking maneuvers with the Hiten and Magellan models. However, larger vehicles in the mass and size class as HST require a shallower depth of perigee transit in order to achieve target post-pass apogee altitudes due to greater drag and associated losses in orbital energy during aerobraking. Overall, aerobraking is posited as a viable cislunar maneuver option for adjusting semi-major axis if the satellite performing the maneuver is capable of surviving deceleration loads of approximately 9 g’s and countering aerodynamic torques in the range of 2–11 N · m depending on vehicle size and initial attitude orientation.

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Source Publication

Aerospace Science and Technology (ISSN 1270-9638)

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