Jocelyn Bailey
Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Missouri University of Science and Technology
Advisor: Dr. Serhat Hosder

Abstract
The progress on the development of a multidisciplinary design optimization (MDO) framework for the optimization of reentry capsules is reported. The framework will be developed to optimize geometry, aeroshells, and optimal TPS sizing to determine conceptual designs for Mars reentry vehicles. In addition, uncertainty quantification will be integrated to the framework to obtain robust designs, which will have performance levels relatively insensitive to the variation in various design parameters and conditions. The current focus of the project is to validate the aerothermodynamic models used in the framework, develop a method for automatically altering the geometry, and MDO framework validation. The aerothermodynamic modeling in the framework is performed using the HEAT-TK program, which enables aeroheating and viscous drag calculations along the specified re-entry trajectories with low-order engineering models. Geometry modification is performed by Gridgen software using its scripting language, glyphs. The two software packages have been integrated into the MDO framework created by the ModelCenter program of Phoenix Integrations, Inc. by scripting their interfaces with Python language.