Related papers: Low-Energy Round-Trip Trajectories to Near-Earth O…
This study presents the trajectory design for a mission touring Saturn's Inner Large Moons (Rhea, Dione, Tethys, Enceladus, and Mimas) engineered to meet observational requirements, including full surface coverage, while ensuring low fuel…
Low-thrust trajectories play a crucial role in optimizing scientific output and cost efficiency in asteroid belt missions. Unlike high-thrust transfers, low-thrust trajectories require solving complex optimal control problems. This…
In this paper, Particle Swarm Optimization with energy-to-fuel continuation is proposed for initializing the co-state variables for low-thrust minimum-fuel trajectory optimization problems in the circular restricted three-body problem.…
Optimization of low-thrust trajectories that involve a larger number of orbit revolutions is considered a challenging problem. This paper describes a high-precision symplectic method and optimization techniques to solve the minimum-energy…
Mission designers must study many dynamical models to plan a low-cost spacecraft trajectory that satisfies mission constraints. They routinely use Poincar\'e maps to search for a suitable path through the interconnected web of periodic…
We assess the dynamical feasibility of redirecting small volatile-bearing trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs) onto Mars-impacting orbits using continuous low-thrust propulsion and a single gravity-assist encounter. The study considers two…
Trajectory design in cislunar space under a High-Fidelity Ephemeris Model (HFEM) is pursued through a nonlinear optimization perspective anchored on the transition of solutions from lower fidelity models, namely the Circular Restricted…
This study proposes a new automated strategy for designing and optimizing three-dimensional interplanetary low-thrust (LT) trajectories. The method formulates the design as a hybrid optimal control problem and solves it using a two-step…
Low-thrust electric propulsion missions are often designed under simplifying assumptions such as constant thrust or fixed specific impulse, neglecting the strong coupling between trajectory dynamics, spacecraft power availability, and…
Space missions that use low-thrust propulsion technology are becoming increasingly popular since they utilize propellant more efficiently and thus reduce mission costs. However, optimizing continuous-thrust trajectories is complex,…
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…
Generating low-thrust transfer trajectories between Earth and the Near Rectilinear Halo Orbit (NRHO), that is selected for NASA's Gateway, can be challenging due to the low control authority available from the propulsion system and the…
This paper presents a comparative study of the applicability and accuracy of optimal control methods and neural network-based estimators in the context of porkchop plots for preliminary asteroid rendezvous mission design. The scenario…
The preliminary mission design of spacecraft missions to asteroids often involves, in the early phases, the selection of candidate target asteroids. The final result of such an analysis is a list of asteroids, ranked with respect to the…
In the last decades Near-Earth Objects (NEOs) have become very important targets to study, since they can give us clues to the formation, evolution and composition of the Solar System. In addition, they may represent either a threat to…
Preliminary mission design requires an efficient and accurate approximation to the low-thrust rendezvous trajectories, which might be generally three-dimensional and involve multiple revolutions. In this paper, a new shaping method using…
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…
The reachable set of controlled dynamical systems consist of the set of all possible reachable states from an initial condition, over a certain period of time under various control and operation constraints and exogenous disturbances. For…
Near-rectilinear halo orbits (NRHOs) around Earth-Moon L2 in the Circular Restricted 3-Body Problem (CR3BP) exhibit a complex dynamical landscape, featuring a band of normally elliptic orbits embedded within regions of strong instability.…
This paper introduces the Circular Restricted n-Body Problem (CRNBP), an extension of the bicircular restricted four-body problem (BCR4BP) designed to describe the dynamics of an n-body system. In the CRNBP, each massive body in the system…