Related papers: Transfers between moons with escape and capture pa…
Given the interest in future space missions devoted to the exploration of key moons in the solar system and that may involve libration point orbits, an efficient design strategy for transfers between moons is introduced that leverages the…
The renewed global interest in lunar exploration requires new orbital strategies to ensure flight safety which can benefit extended lunar missions and service a plethora of planned instruments in the lunar orbit and surface. We investigate…
The design of transfers to periodic orbits in the Earth-Moon system has regained prominence with NASA's Artemis and CNSA's Chang'e programs. This work addresses the problem of linking ballistic capture trajectories - exploiting multi-body…
This paper presents a simple approach to low-thrust optimal-fuel and optimal-time transfer problems between two elliptic orbits using the Cartesian coordinates system. In this case, an orbit is described by its specific angular momentum and…
The optimization of low-thrust, multi-revolution orbit transfer trajectories is often regarded as a difficult problem in modern astrodynamics. In this paper, a flexible and computationally efficient approach is presented for the…
We present a trajectory concept for a small mission to the four inner large satellites of Saturn. Leveraging the high efficiency of electric propulsion, the concept enables orbit insertion around each of the moons, for arbitrarily long…
A computational approach is developed for the design of continuous low thrust transfers in the planar circular restricted three-body problem. The transfer design method of invariant manifolds is extended with the addition of continuous low…
There exist cislunar and trans-lunar libration points near the Moon, which are referred as the LL1 and LL2 points respectively and can generate the different types of low-energy trajectories transferring from Earth to Moon. The…
In this work, we develop a new method to design energy minimum low-thrust missions (L2-minimization). In the Circular Restricted Three Body Problem, the knowledge of invariant manifolds helps us initialize an indirect method solving a…
As interest in the Earth-Moon transfers renewed around the world, understanding the solution space of transfer trajectories facilitates the construction of transfers. This paper is devoted to reporting a novel or less-reported phenomenon…
Gateway will represent a primary logistic infrastructure in cislunar space. The identification of efficient orbit transfers capable of connecting Earth, Moon, and Gateway paves the way for enabling refurbishment, servicing, and utilization…
The problem of minimizing the transfer time between periodic orbits in the Earth-Moon elliptic restricted three-body problem using a multi-mode propulsion system is considered. By employing the true anomaly on the primary orbit as the…
This study applies a new approach, the Theory of Functional Connections (TFC), to solve the two-point boundary-value problem (TPBVP) in non-Keplerian orbit transfer. The perturbations considered are drag, solar radiation pressure,…
Escape trajectories from the Earth-Moon system play an important role in interplanetary transfer. This paper focuses on the escape trajectories from a 167 km circular Earth orbit in the Earth-Moon planar circular three-body problem and the…
In the Earth-Moon system, low-energy orbits are transfer trajectories from the earth to a circumlunar orbit that require less propellant consumption when compared to the traditional methods. In this work we use a Monte Carlo approach to…
Dynamical structures in the circular restricted three-body problem (CR3BP) are fundamental for designing low-energy transfers, as they aid in analyzing phase space transport and designing desirable trajectories. One of these dynamical…
In this paper a direct method based on a transcription by finite elements in time has been used to design optimal interplanetary trajectories, exploiting a combination of gravity assist maneuvers and low-thrust propulsion. A multiphase…
This paper presents a navigation strategy to fly to the Moon along a Weak Stability Boundary transfer trajectory. A particular strategy is devised to ensure capture into an uncontrolled relatively stable orbit at the Moon. Both uncertainty…
The current lunar exploration, particularly the regular large-scale cargo transportation in the Earth-Moon system proposes requirements for amount of low-energy lunar transfers. The conventional grid-search method to construct low-energy…
The photometric transit method has been the most effective method to detect and characterize exoplanets as several ground-based as well as space-based survey missions have discovered thousands of exoplanets using this method. With the…