Mars Sample Return Orbiter: Detailed Vibrational-Chemical Kinetics and Heat Transfer

In the present paper, detailed state-to-state model of vibrational-chemical kinetic and transport processes is applied to study fluid dynamics and heat transfer in a non-equilibrium flow of a five-component mixture containing CO2 molecules and products of their dissociation near the surface of the Mars Sample Return Orbiter. For several test cases, vibrational distributions, chemical composition, specific vibrational energy profiles as well as the transport coefficients and different contributions to the heat flux are calculated along the stagnation line. For a non-catalytic surface, the role of thermal diffusion process is found to be important. Prandtl and Schmidt numbers are calculated along the stagnation line, and their influence on the diffusion velocities and heat flux is evaluated.