Ballistic Lunar Transfer Design using the Deep Space Trajectory Explorer

April 26, 2023

How can the DSTE software from a.i. solutions be used in conjunction with Ballistic Lunar Transfers?

In the coming years, numerous commercial companies and government agencies plan to expand their presence in cislunar space. Subsequently, an understanding of the cislunar gravitational environment is crucial to the success of these programs. Development of tools to effectively leverage natural dynamical structures helps streamline the trajectory design process. In this investigation, the functionality of the JavaFX-based Deep Space Trajectory Explorer (DSTE) is extended to construct ballistic lunar transfers to libration point orbits in the vicinity of the Moon.

Introduction

In 2020, NASA released the agency’s lunar exploration program overview, providing Artemis and Gateway status reports as well as plans for additional extended lunar missions.1 To enable such endeavors, an understanding of the cislunar gravitational environment is crucial to the success of the program. However, given the chaotic nature of a multi-body system, preliminary path planning in this environment is challenging. To meet these challenges, development of tools to streamline the preliminary trajectory design process that leverage dynamical structures in cislunar space is critical.

Several tools have previously been developed to facilitate the early design process in this multibody regime. The Adaptive Trajectory Design (ATD) software facilitates construction of arcs in the circular restricted three-body problem (CR3BP) model to supply an initial guess to an ephemeris differential corrections process.2, 3 The Poincare package was developed in JPL’s MONTE software to aide in construction of itineraries in multi-body systems.4 Additionally, Generator and LTool have previously been used for multi-body trajectory design.5, 6 The Deep Space Trajectory Explorer
(DSTE) was developed as a JavaFX-based tool to aid in preliminary trajectory design in multi-body systems using interactive visualization techniques.7–10 In this investigation, the functionality of DSTE is extended to construct ballistic lunar transfers (BLTs) to cislunar libration point orbits.

Several previous, current, and planned missions are leveraging ballistic lunar transfer trajectories to reach the vicinity of the Moon. JAXA’s Hiten spacecraft, KARI’s KPLO mission, and NASA’s GRAIL and CAPSTONE missions exploited BLT paths to successfully access to the lunar region, as well as ispace’s HAKUTO-R mission, which is currently leveraging a BLT.11–15 This type of transfer offers a reduced propellant cost as an alternative to direct lunar transfer trajectories, but typically requires a longer time of flight. Construction and characterization of BLTs have been investigated by several researchers previously. Parker and Anderson explore ballistic lunar transfers using dynamical systems and numerical methods within the context of a patched three-body model as well as an ephemeris model.16 Whitley et al. initially examined BLTs for uncrewed missions to the lunar Gateway.17 Parrish et al. survey ballistic lunar transfer options to NRHOs completely within the context of an ephemeris model18 and examined operation considerations for BLTs to NRHOs.19 Additionally, McCarthy and Howell as well as Scheuerle and Howell investigate ballistic lunar transfers to periodic and quasi-periodic orbits within the context of a four-body model.20, 21 This investigation leverages methodologies developed by previous researchers implemented in the DSTE to facilitate rapid construction of ballistic lunar transfers.

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Ballistic Lunar Transfer Design using the Deep Space Trajectory Explorer
REFERENCES

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