NASA, ORNL composite animation computed on Frontier

Composite animation showing autonomous flight trajectory using closed-loop flight control computed on Frontier. The vehicle descends from approximately seven kilometers altitude to one kilometer and decelerates from Mach 2.4 to approximately Mach 0.8 during this 35-second period. The top inset shows the RCS firing sequence and associated roll angle, which can also be observed as a subtle -1-degree vehicle rotation in the main image. The top-right inset shows a farfield view of the trajectory, where the Martian surface is indicated by a Cartesian grid with a 1-kilometer spacing. The middle-right inset shows the throttle settings for each of the eight main engines, which decelerate the vehicle and also control pitch and yaw. The bottom-right image shows the vehicle pitch angle, which can also be observed in the main image. The main engine plumes are visualized using density weighted by the H2O mass fraction, while the RCS jets are shown using density weighted by the N2 mass fraction with separate red/green c