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.


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    Title :

    Low-Thrust Trajectory Design from Lunar Rideshare to Venus Capture



    Published in:

    Publication date :

    2022-11-01




    Type of media :

    Article (Journal)


    Type of material :

    Electronic Resource


    Language :

    English



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