Development of an Improved Spherical Shaping Method for High-Inclination Trajectories

Over the past years, numerous missions for spacecraft with low-thrust propulsion have been planned to include large orbital plane changes. In order efficiently generate and evaluate orbits for such missions, use can be made of the spherical shaping method proposed by Novak. When inclinations larger than 15 degrees are present however, the error...

Cubesat Deployment Trajectories for the Asteroid Impact Mission

Missions to Near-Earth Objects (NEOs) are a growing trend in spaceflight. The interest for such bodies is not only justified by the threat that they represent for the Earth, but also because they are potential sources of extra-terrestrial materials, provide windows to the past of the Solar System and to planetary formation, and offer a good...

A Rapid Grid-Search Technique for KBO Exploration Trajectories

The Kuiper Belt is considered to be formed by remnants of the original Solar System, that is why exploration missions to that region are susceptible of having an enormous scientific impact. Nonetheless, it is far away from Earth, missions to KBO targets a significant challenge. Additionally, current methods to identify trajectories that...

Free-trajectory steady motion control optimisation for the descent of elite cyclists

Minimum-time optimisation has been used extensively in motorsports, such as Formula One racing. Using minimum-time optimisation, the ideal racing line as well as control strategies such as braking strategies can be found. This is interesting, as Reijne et al have shown that cyclists apply diverse strategies, specifically during a descent [1]....

Asteroid Transfer and Capture into a Heliocentric Orbit in the Vicinity of the Earth-Moon System

The idea of capturing an asteroid has gained more and more attention in recent years, sparked by rapid technological development and the growing general interest into the subject, both by scientists and commercial parties. The focus of this thesis project lies on transferring a near-Earth asteroid (NEA) from its original orbit to a safe, stable...