Landing Trajectory Design Using Invariant Manifolds of Quasi Satellite Orbits: A Phobos Case Study

Quasi-satellite orbits (QSOs) are orbits around the smaller primary in three-body systems. The MMX mission (developed by JAXA, to be launched in 2024) will use QSOs to orbit Phobos, before landing on its surface. This work studies the feasibility of using the invariant manifolds of three-dimensional QSOs for designing landing trajectories, using...

Quasi-periodic invariant tori and retrieval of Near-Earth Asteroids using low-energy trajectories

Near-Earth Asteroids (NEAs) have attracted the attention of the scientific community in the last few years. Not only because of their importance to life on Earth but also their scientific potential and possible economic returns. This work explores the use of quasi-periodic orbits to bound the motion of NEAs close to the Earth’s vicinity for...

Optimal Trajectories in the Earth-Moon CR3BP system

The aim of this investigation is to improve the first stage of mission analysis on trajectories in the Circular Restricted Three-Body Problem (CR3BP). This will be achieved by developing a versatile tool that can optimize any transfer in the CR3BP in terms of ΔV and time of flight. Hence, the output will not be<br/>a single solution, but a...

The Extended Tisserand-Poincaré graph for multi-body trajectory design

The decision on the dynamical model used to design a spacecraft’s trajectory is a fundamental choice influenced by many factors. The complexity of such a model affects the accuracy of the designed trajectory but also the difficulty of the design process. One approach to simplify this task consists of splitting the trajectory design process into...

Linear stability and bifurcations of periodic Lagrange orbits in the Elliptic Restricted 3-Body Problem: An investigation at L1/L2 in the Earth-Moon system

The Three Body Problem (3BP) has been one of the main celestial mechanics problems in the past few centuries, for a long time studied by both engineers and mathematicians. Its practical purpose is to describe the motion of three particles only under their mutual gravitational interaction, thus it actually represents a ‘model’ of the real...