Assessment of Radiation Scattering by Dust in Mars Entry

The impact on wall-directed heat flux of gas-phase radiation scattering by dust particle presence in Mars entry scenarios is assessed using a suite of numerical tools. A hypersonic gas and dilute particle multiphase flow is simulated using a mixed continuum model and an efficient size distribution quadrature scheme. Radiative transport is simulated with a hybrid ray-tracing and [Formula: see text] spherical harmonics model. The NASA High-temperature Aerothermodynamic Radiation Algorithm radiation code and a Lorentz–Mie scattering model are used to predict the gas–particle mixture radiative properties. Application of the numerical suite to a representative case based on the Mars 2020 entry shows that, even at conditions in excess of the strongest recorded dust storm, the augmentation in surface radiative heat flux due to scattering is lower than 1%. Predictions with even higher dust loading conditions confirm that even highly uncertain dust mass profiles are unlikely to be a concern for the scattering augmentation mechanism.