Radiation aerothermodynamics of the Stardust space vehicle

This paper presents a radiation-gasdynamic model and the results of calculating the radiative-convective heating of the Stardust space vehicle, obtained using the NERAT(2D)-ASTEROID computer code designed for solving the full system of equations of the radiation-gas dynamics of a viscous, conductive, physically and chemically non-equilibrium gas and radiation transfer in a two-dimensional geometry. The system of continuum mechanics equations is solved by the explicit method using a simplified procedure for solving the problem of the decomposition of an arbitrary discontinuity. The system of equations of energy conservation of translational degrees of freedom of gas particles and vibrational degrees of freedom of nitrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen oxide molecules is solved by the implicit finite difference method. A multiblock and multigrid procedure is used to obtain a numerical solution. Calculation of the transfer of selective thermal radiation is done using the line-by-line method on specially generated inhomogeneous calculation grids over the wavelength of radiation, making it possible to achieve an appreciable saving of computing resources. In a single cycle of the computing process, the spectral optical properties of high-temperature gases are calculated using ab initio quasi-classical and quantum mechanics methods.