Publisher's Synopsis
The Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Entry, Descent, and Landing Instrumentation (MEDLI)/MarsEntry Atmospheric Data System (MEADS) project installed seven pressure ports through the MSLPhenolic Impregnated Carbon Ablator (PICA) heatshield to measure heatshield surface pressuresduring entry. These measured surface pressures are used to generate estimates of atmospheric quantitiesbased on modeled surface pressure distributions. In particular, the quantities to be estimatedfrom the MEADS pressure measurements include the dynamic pressure, angle of attack, and angleof sideslip. This report describes the calibration of the pressure transducers utilized to reconstructthe atmospheric data and associated uncertainty models, pressure modeling and uncertainty analysis, and system performance results. The results indicate that the MEADS pressure measurementsystem hardware meets the project requirements
