Return to search

Construction of Ballistic Lunar Transfers in the Earth-Moon-Sun System

<p>An increasing interest in lunar
exploration calls for low-cost techniques of reaching the Moon. Ballistic lunar
transfers are long duration trajectories that leverage solar perturbations to
reduce the multi-body energy of a spacecraft upon arrival into cislunar space.
An investigation is conducted to explore methods of constructing ballistic
lunar transfers. The techniques employ dynamical systems theory to leverage the
underlying dynamical flow of the multi-body regime. Ballistic lunar transfers
are governed by the gravitational influence of the Earth-Moon-Sun system; thus,
multi-body gravity models are employed, i.e., the circular restricted
three-body problem (CR3BP) and the bicircular restricted four-body problem (BCR4BP).
The Sun-Earth CR3BP provides insight into the Sun’s effect on transfers near the
Earth. The BCR4BP offers a coherent model for constructing end-to-end ballistic
lunar transfers. Multiple techniques are employed to uncover ballistic
transfers to conic and multi-body orbits in cislunar space. Initial conditions
to deliver the spacecraft into various orbits emerge from Periapse Poincaré
maps. From a chosen geometry, families of transfers from the Earth to conic
orbits about the Moon are developed. Instantaneous equilibrium solutions in the
BCR4BP provide an approximate for the theoretical minimum lunar orbit insertion
costs, and are leveraged to create low-cost solutions. Trajectories to the <i>L</i>2 2:1 synodic resonant Lyapunov orbit, <i>L</i>2 2:1 synodic resonant Halo orbit, and the 3:1 synodic resonant
Distant Retrograde Orbit (DRO) are investigated.</p>

  1. 10.25394/pgs.14456391.v1
Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:purdue.edu/oai:figshare.com:article/14456391
Date07 May 2021
CreatorsStephen Scheuerle Jr. (10676634)
Source SetsPurdue University
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeText, Thesis
RightsCC BY 4.0
Relationhttps://figshare.com/articles/thesis/Construction_of_Ballistic_Lunar_Transfers_in_the_Earth-Moon-Sun_System/14456391

Page generated in 0.0024 seconds