aerocapture - In Fiction

A proposed technique for placing a spacecraft in orbit around a planet, without the expenditure of chemical propellants, by taking advantage of planetary atmosphere. The spacecraft would be equipped with an aerobrake similar to the heat shields on space capsules like Apollo, and would be navigated into the planet's upper atmosphere, where friction would slow it down. The technique offers the prospect of reducing trip times to the outer planets by using less massive spacecraft, and of carrying heavier payloads to Mars for sample return missions and, eventually, human exploration.

Aerocapture is a technique used to reduce velocity of a spacecraft, arriving at a celestial body with a hyperbolic trajectory, in order to bring it in an orbit with an eccentricity less or equal to 1.

In Fiction

Aerocapture within fiction can be read in Arthur C. Clarke's NOVEL 2010: Odyssey Two, in which two spacecraft (one Russian, one Chinese) both use aerocapture in Jupiter's atmosphere to shed their excess velocity and position themselves for exploring Jupiter's satellites. This can be seen as a special effect in the movie version (created by MGM/released by Warner Home Video) in which only a Russian spacecraft undergoes aerocapture (in the film incorectly called aerobraking), which is demonstrated via special effects.