Interplanetary Cruise Trajectory Design for the Comet Astrobiology Exploration Sample Return (CAESAR) Mission
- Paper number
IAC-19,C1,1,x50880
- Year
2019
- Abstract
The Comet Astrobiology Exploration Sample Return (CAESAR) mission is a proposal for NASA’s New Frontiers 4 competition. If selected, CAESAR will travel to and return a sample from comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. This sample, containing both volatile and nonvolatile materials, will greatly increase humanity’s understanding of the comets in the context of the origin of life in the solar system. This paper will discuss the design of the CAESAR trajectory using NASA Goddard Space Flight Center’s Evolutionary Mission Trajectory Generator (EMTG) global search and optimization tool and KinetX Aerospace’s MIRAGE navigation tool. If selected, CAESAR will launch in 2024 or 2025 and travel to and from 67P using the NASA Evolutionary Xenon Thruster (NEXT) electric propulsion system and 30 kW roll-out solar arrays. CAESAR will arrive at 67P in 2028 and spend four years in situ. After a reconnaissance campaign to determine how 67P has changed since Rosetta’s exploration 12 years earlier, CAESAR will perform a touch-and-go (TAG) landing and acquire a sample. CAESAR will depart from 67P in 2033 and return to Earth in 2038. This work discusses the design methodology and underlying mathematics of the trajectory optimization in EMTG, the design trades that led to the mission as proposed, and the process of verifying the trajectory in the MIRAGE navigation tool. This will include a discussion of a trajectory optimization transcription based on the method of direct parallel shooting, monotonic basin hopping, and nonlinear programming. Operational constraints are described as mathematical expressions and included in the global search process.
- Abstract document
- Manuscript document
(absent)