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Yul Tolbert
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posted 9/1/04 3:10 PM
I was watching NASA TV a few weeks ago, when I discovered the difference between aerobraking and aerocapture. (For those who don't know, aerobraking is where a spaceship enters the upper atmosphere of a planet several times to slow down and enter a certain orbit. Aerocapture is where a spaceship enters the upper atmosphere of a planet once to slow down and enter a certain orbit.) Up until then, I kept thinking of Aerocapture as being aerobraking. But now I know better. Yet I also have to say that the confusion there might not necessarily be my fault. For example, the movie 2010 only used the term "aerobraking" and never "aerocapture" (as best as I can remember). Also, I recall reading an article in Final Frontier magazine that referred to aerocapture as "a variation of aerobraking." And then there's physicist Brian O'Leary's book Mars 1999 where he frequently uses the term "aerobraking" as opposed to "aerocapture." But in any event, it still seems that I wrongly used the term "aerobraking" for "aerocapture."
What this all means is that I might have to go through the trouble of correcting certain science comics I've done in the past that inaccurately refer to aerocapture as aerobraking. Of course I wouldn't have had to go through all that trouble if I had only paid attention. Ho ve!
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