Landing footprint



A landing footprint, also called a landing ellipse, is the area of uncertainty of a spacecraft's landing zone on an astronomical body. After atmospheric entry, the landing point of a spacecraft will depend upon the degree of control (if any), entry angle, entry mass, atmospheric conditions, and drag. (Note that the Moon and the asteroids have no aerial factors.) By aggregating such numerous variables it is possible to model a spacecraft's landing zone to a certain degree of precision. By simulating entry under varying conditions an probable ellipse can be calculated; the size of the ellipse represents the degree of uncertainty for a given confidence interval.