Planetary Landers and Entry Probes

This book provides a concise but broad overview of the engineering, science and flight history of planetary landers and atmospheric entry probesvehicles designed to explore the atmospheres and surfaces of other worlds. It covers engineering aspects specific to such vehicles, such as landing systems, parachutes, planetary protection and entry shields, which are not usually treated in traditional spacecraft engineering texts. Examples are drawn from over 30 different lander and entry probe designs that have been used for lunar and planetary, missions since the early 1960s. The authors provide detailed illustrations of many vehicle designs from space programmes worldwide, and give basic information on their missions and payloads, irrespective of the mission's success or failure. Several missions are discussed in more detail, in order to demonstrate the broad range of the challenges involved and the solutions implemented. --