Frozen Orbit Design and Stability: An Application to Asteroid Apophis during its 2029 Earth Flyby

Apophis, an Aten-type asteroid, was considered a significant threat to Earth upon its discovery due to its potential impact with Earth in 2029. Although the collision has now been ruled out, Apophis will still perform an exceptionally close flyby of Earth that same year at a distance of 32,000 km from the surface. This event presents a unique...

Distant Retrograde Orbits: Modeling and Stability

Distant Retrograde Orbits (DROs) are special orbits for third bodies in two-body systems. The third body revolves around the secondary – the smaller of the two primaries – in a retrograde way, meaning the direction is opposite to the direction that the primaries revolve around each other. DROs are not close to either of the primaries, making it...

Orbit design of a swarm for ultra-long wavelength radio interferometry with preliminary swarm and thruster sizing

Observing the universe in the Ultra-Long Wavelength (ULW) regime has been called the ‘last frontier in astronomy’—real imaging capabilities here are yet to be achieved. Obtaining an image of the sky in this frequency band can be done by employing a swarm of satellites that together act as an interferometer and collect the required imaging...

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

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. <br/>The design leverages classical results from Dynamical Systems Theory (DST) to determine low-energy transfers...

Numerical optimisation of constellation and orbit design for the OLFAR radio interferometry swarm in orbit of the Earth-Moon L4 point

In the field of radio astronomy the Ultra-Long Wavelength (f &lt; 30MHz) band is unique, it has been studied for nearly a century yet it is still almost completely uncharted. Due to the reflective properties of Earth's ionosphere this band is nearly completely inaccessible for ground-based observatories, which can only receive frequencies down...

Mission analysis of space-based telescopes to detect impacting near-Earth objects

Recognising the threat of near-Earth objects (NEOs), many ground-based surveys have been deployed worldwide. However, ~20% of these potential impactors are estimated to be approaching us from the day-side, and are thus very difficult to detect using ground surveys. Over the last decade, several space-based capabilities have emerged in an effort...

Geodetic parameter estimation for small-satellite small-body missions: An uncertainty-driven approach

This thesis work has been motivated by the growing interest in small-spacecraft small-body missions and more specifically inspired by a proposed mission to the largest Martian Trojan (5261) Eureka. This binary asteroid represents a promising target for a planetary mission, as a better understanding of its formation and evolution would provide...

Co-orbital motion and its application to JAXA's MMX mission

In the framework of JAXA's MMX mission to explore the Martian moon of Phobos, an analysis of the stability of three-dimensional quasi-satellite orbits in the Mars-Phobos circular restricted three-body problem was conducted. For this analysis, notions of co-orbital motion, interpreted as the slow motion of the guiding center of the trajectory...

Stable Orbits in the Small-Body Problem: An Application to the Psyche Mission

Over the past few years, space missions to minor celestial bodies have gained increased attention from the space community. A prime example is the selection of Psyche as NASA’s fourteenth Discovery Program mission. Orbital dynamics in the vicinity of small irregular bodies pose great challenges for trajectory design. In particular, science...

Orbit Design of a Lunar Meteoroid Impact Flashes Observer

Fragments of asteroids and comets constantly encounter the Earth and Moon in their orbits, impacting them as meteoroids. Observations of meteor showers on Earth have been studied for at least 50 years, in order to construct accurate Solar System meteoroid models. More recently, Earth-based telescopic observations of the light flashes produced by...