Low-energy transfers from GTO to lunar Halo orbits: rideshare options and sensitivities

Master thesis (2020)

Authors

A. Pascarella Aerospace Engineering

Contributors

R. Noomen Astrodynamics & Space Missions - Aerospace Engineering (supervisor 1)
R. Wilson NASA-Jet Propulsion Laboratory (supervisor 2)
Faculty
Aerospace Engineering
Copyright: © 2020 Alex Pascarella
More Info
expand_more

Published Date

04-11-2020

Language

English

Reuse Rights

Other than for strictly personal use, it is not permitted to download, forward or distribute the text or part of it, without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), unless the work is under an open content license such as Creative Commons.

Faculty

Aerospace Engineering

Abstract

In this research project, the design of a smallsat mission to a Halo orbit around the Earth-Moon second libration point (EML-2) using a rideshare launch opportunity to an inclined geosynchronous transfer orbit (GTO) was investigated.
The design leverages classical results from Dynamical Systems Theory (DST) to determine low-energy transfers from Earth to the libration orbit, and a new design methodology was developed to generate a bridge trajectory that connects the initial GTO to the low-energy transfer trajectory. The results obtained during the research prove the validity of the mission design, and show the feasibility of using a rideshare launch opportunity to achieve the mission goals.