Abstract This paper presents the preliminary navigation and orbit determination analyses for the European Student Moon Orbiter. The severe constraint on the total mission Δv and the all-day piggy-back launch requirement imposed by the limited available budget, led to the choice of using a low-energy transfer, more specifically a Weak Stability Boundary one, with a capture into an elliptic orbit around the Moon. A particular navigation strategy was devised to ensure capture and fulfil the requirement for the uncontrolled orbit stability at the Moon. This paper presents a simulation of the orbit determination process, based on an extended Kalman filter, and the navigation strategy applied to the baseline transfer of the 2011–2012 window. The navigation strategy optimally allocates multiple Trajectory Correction Manoeuvres to target a so-called capture corridor. The capture corridor is defined, at each point along the transfer, by back-propagating the set of perturbed states at the Moon that provides an acceptable lifetime of the lunar orbit.
Highlights ► Low cost mission to the Moon entirely designed by the student community. ► Weak Stability Boundary transfer to the Moon. ► Robust Navigation Strategy based on the concept of Lunar Capture Corridor.
Orbit determination and control for the European Student Moon Orbiter
Acta Astronautica ; 79 ; 67-78
2012-03-02
12 pages
Article (Journal)
Electronic Resource
English
ESMO , European Student Moon Orbiter , EKF , Extended Kalman Filter , GTO , Geostationary Transfer Orbit , NAC , Narrow Angle Camera , OD , Orbit Determination , STK , Satellite Tool Kit , TCM , Trajectory Correction Manoeuvres , WSB , Weak Stability Boundary , LEO , Low Earth Orbit , TLI , Trans Lunar Insertion , Weak Stability Boundary transfer , Navigation , Mission analysis , Flight dynamics
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