Asteroid mining is rapidly becoming a popular topic amongst space community, primarily due to the potential resources that the asteroids can provide for future spacefaring. One of the interesting resources that can be obtained from asteroids is water, which can also be processed into oxygen and fuel. An intriguing concept would be to process fuel from asteroid, and establish a fuel depot in an Earth-centered orbit. This thesis considers a mission concept consisting of travelling to an Arjuna near-Earth asteroid from a lunar distant retrograde orbit as a depot orbit, processing fuel in-situ from the water on the asteroid, and bringing back 100 tons of fuel to the depot orbit. In order to minimize fuel consumption for such a trip, the thesis develops an optimization method that can obtain the best trajectory for different phases of the round trip, given certain constraints to ensure the spacecraft successfully reaches the asteroid and comes back to the Earth system. The optimization model consists of four steps, i.e., the outbound trip, the first phase of the return trip, the second phase of the return trip, and the optimization for the combined phases of return trip. The outbound trip is the trajectory from the depot orbit to the asteroid. After at least three months of mining, the spacecraft brings back the processed fuel to the vicinity of the Moon. This phase is called the first phase of the return trip. The spacecraft is then captured without an insertion burn to an Earth-centered orbit by a lunar gravity assist maneuver, and travels to the point where the insertion maneuver to the depot orbit begins. This is the second phase of the return trip. The last step of the optimization is the combination of the two phases of return trip, in addition to the final maneuver for entering the lunar distant retrograde orbit. The optimization method uses MATLAB fmincon solver, and it was applied to 29 synthetic asteroids. There were 19 converged solutions, but for 10 asteroids the optimizations was not able to converge. The lowest minimum fuel consumption for a trip is 19965.5 kg, and the highest minimum fuel consumption is 61821.4 kg. For the lowest minimum fuel consumption, the duration of the trip is nearly 7 years, and the duration for the highest minimum fuel consumption is about 2.6 years.

Engineering and technical challenges exist with the material transport of natural resources in space. One aspect of this transport problem is the design of an orbit architecture in the Earth-Moon system (EMS) that facilitates these resources through the mining cycle. In this thesis, it is proposed to use the Circular Restricted 3-Body Problem (CR3BP) to design an orbit architecture composed of L3 Lyapunov orbits, hyperbolic invariant stable and unstable manifolds, and geosynchronous (GEO) orbits. A single shooting method (SSM) and natural parameter continuation (NPC) numerical algorithm is used to compute a family of L3 Lyapunov orbits. Invariant Manifold Theory (IMT) is leveraged to find the set of feasible hyperbolic invariant stable and unstable manifolds associated with a L3 Lyapunov orbit. Ideal L3 Lyapunov orbits are chosen to construct an orbit architecture based off favorable metrics like orbital period, Jacobi Constant, and stability index. Manifolds that enter the GEO and xGEO (beyond GEO) volumes are identified. Finally, a ∆V analysis for GEO to manifold transfer is conducted. An achievement of this study is the computation of stable L3 Lyapunov orbits. The primary contribution of this paper lies in its modeling of a L3 Lyapunov orbit architecture using the CR3BP. / Master of Science / Engineering and technical challenges exist with the material transport of natural resources in space. One aspect of this transport problem is the design of an orbit architecture in the Earth-Moon system (EMS) that facilitates these resources through the mining cycle. In this thesis, it is proposed to use the Circular Restricted 3-Body Problem (CR3BP) to design an orbit architecture composed of L3 Lyapunov orbits, hyperbolic invariant stable and unstable manifolds, and geosynchronous (GEO) orbits. L3 is a unique point in space in a rotating frame of reference where the gravity of the Earth and Moon create a dynamical equilibrium point. Due to its location in a rotating frame of reference relative to the Earth and the Moon, orbits around L3 tend to greater stability than L1 or L2. A single shooting method (SSM) and natural parameter continuation (NPC), which are computational methods for finding solutions that connect discrete boundary conditions, numerical algorithm is used to compute a family of L3 Lyapunov orbits. Invariant Manifold Theory (IMT), which is a dynamical system structure that is invariant throughout the action of the system, is leveraged to find the set of feasible hyperbolic invariant stable and unstable manifolds associated with L3 Lyapunov orbits. Ideal L3 Lyapunov orbits and manifolds are chosen to construct an orbit architecture based off favorable metrics like orbital period, Jacobi Constant, and stability index. Manifolds that enter the GEO and xGEO (beyond GEO) volumes are identified. Finally, a ∆V analysis for GEO to manifold transfer is conducted. An achievement of this study is the computation of stable L3 Lyapunov orbits. The primary contribution of this paper lies in its modeling of a L3 Lyapunov orbit architecture using the CR3BP.

Regardless of new mining technologies and environmental regulations, the minerals we extract from the earth’s crust will eventually run out. Likewise, our society demands a constant increase of technology to improve our quality of life. Mining in Zero Gravity is a speculative design project that offers a vision of our first attempt at mining platinum group metals from asteroids by the year 2040. Kolibri is designed within the boundaries of the future challenges facing the mining industry and the development of our space industry.