On 24 Jul 2004 14:55:03 -0700
(Remy Villeneuve) wrote:

Using it's solar panels as flaps,
a la Mars Global Surveyor, it would aerobrake with a profile such that
the resulting vector would be as perpendicular as possible to the
orbit in a normal or antinormal fashion, changing the inclination a
few tenths of degrees at a time, every 90 minutes...

One thing to note is that at hypersonic speeds it is impossible to achieve a high lift/drag ratio. What this means is that much of the impulse experienced by the aerobraking spacecraft will be drag, with a small amount of lift. Because of this I think it will run out of orbital velocity before it gets much of a change in orbital plane.
--
Michael Smith
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