Optimization of Trajectories to Equilibrium Points of Earth-Moon System through Invariant Manifolds
- Paper number
IAC-08.A3.2.INT18
- Author
Mr. Hui Yu, TU Delft, The Netherlands
- Year
2008
- Abstract
The problem is about the development of transferring several small spacecrafts from a certain Earth parking orbit into the nearby place around L1 or L2 of the Earth-Moon system, and then these small spacecrafts will make formation flying there for some special missions which are impossible for one big spacecraft. Considering the energy cost and flight time, invariant manifolds are used to design the trajectory for all these small spacecrafts. A restricted three-body system, Earth-Moon-Spacecraft system, is involved in the procedure. Because L1 or L2 mentioned above are static relative to both the Earth and the Moon, the time to launch these small spacecrafts will not be considered, which means that the launching positions on that Earth parking orbit are the only parameters for the author to find during launch period. A ΔVi1(i=1,2,…k, where k is the number of spacecrafts ) maneuver is needed for transferring from the Earth parking orbit into the invariant manifold for each spacecraft. Then, these spacecrafts will fly along the invariant manifolds without any energy consuming. Obviously, the disadvantage is that the flight time would be much longer than other transfer methods. However, the tradeoff has to be accepted for these special missions. After a time span, a ΔVi2 maneuver is needed to make the spacecraft stay around these two equilibrium points. Genetic algorithm and unconstrained nonlinear optimization methods are employed to obtain the minimum value of ΔVi1+ΔVi2.The Earth parking orbit, the positions on that orbit, the invariant manifolds and the points for ΔVi2 maneuver are all parameters to be optimized. This method would be useful for the future deep space exploration around the equilibrium points.
- Abstract document
- Manuscript document
(absent)