Aerocapture

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A strategy designed to utilize a planet's atmospheric drag for reducing the velocity of a spacecraft during entry
2. A process that employs the drag force of an atmosphere to decelerate a spacecraft when it enters a planet's gravitational influence
3. A method of slowing a spacecraft by passing it through a planet's atmosphere to reduce its speed using air resistance

Etymology: Aerocapture is a technical coinage, built plainly from two parts: "aero-", from Greek "aēr" meaning air, and "capture", the familiar English word for taking hold of something. Put together, the term names a spacecraft's use of a planet's atmosphere to slow down enough to be caught in orbit, rather than burning fuel to do the job. A probe approaching a planet at high speed skims the upper air, where drag sheds the excess velocity, and then it leaves the air with an orbit it can keep. The word belongs to the vocabulary of space engineering, so its meaning is narrow and literal: the aerobraking is the force, and the capture is the result. Its value lies in the fuel it saves, since a craft that does not need to carry enough propellant to decelerate can be lighter or carry more instruments.

Synonyms: atmospheric capture, orbital insertion, aerodynamic capture, entry, trajectory adjustment

Antonyms: escape, launch, deorbit, exit, flyby