Small spacecraft are likely to be launched as part of a rideshare mission rather than on a dedicated launch. These spacecraft typically use low-thrust propulsion systems as they have lower fuel mass requirements. However, without a dedicated launch, the lower thrust can make it difficult to reach interplanetary targets. Further mission design difficulties arise as the optimizers used to search for such trajectories often require a good initial guess, which can be difficult to find. This work patches together a perturbed Sims–Flanagan transcription in three different regimes, each with a different central body, to perform a preliminary search for trajectories from a lunar rideshare to a weak capture around Venus with little input required from the mission designer. Example trajectories of such a mission are presented. The ability of this mission architecture to arrive as close to Venus’s upper atmosphere as possible is explored.
Low-Thrust Trajectory Design from Lunar Rideshare to Venus Capture
Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets ; 59 , 6 ; 2070-2083
2022-11-01
Article (Journal)
Electronic Resource
English
RIDESHARE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM, RIDESHARE MANAGEMENT METHOD, AND PROGRAM
European Patent Office | 2020
|European Patent Office | 2024
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