In 1995 the Galileo spacecraft arrived at the Jovian system and performed a first flyby with Io to decrease the required $\Delta V$ for orbit insertion. This technique is generally known as "satellite-aided planetary capture". The thesis research combines low-radiation satellite-aided capture trajectories with low-thrust propulsion and sees what improvements can be achieved, compared with direct capture and "conventional" satellite-aided capture. The Tisserand graph theory was employed in optimizations to find the most optimal sequences for satellite-aided planetary capture in the Jovian system. Then, to include low-thrust legs in the capture trajectories, a second-order Taylor-series expansion was combined in the satellite-aided planetary capture optimizations to investigate low-thrust satellite-aided planetary capture capabilities. An ephemerides search supplied both a date and initial perijove distribution for each possible sequence. With this combined,
conclusions could be taken with respect to mission planning. ... Read more