Near rectilinear halo orbits have been proposed for NASA's Gateway concept, and they offer several desirable properties such as relatively easy access to/from earth, relatively easy access to/from low lunar orbit, visibility of the lunar surface, and low propulsive maintenance requirements. We consider a representative orbit for the Gateway with lunar periapse above the north pole with altitude of 4557 km and period of about 7 days. Abort scenarios from low lunar orbit to the Gateway are considered. We first pose the transfer problem as a minimum delta-v optimization problem in a two body field. We then develop a numerical continuation to generate locally optimally impulsive transfers in a three body field. Using MATLAB, solution times are on the order of minutes on a standard desktop computer. Based on this process, we study the relationship between Gateway position, time of flight, delta-v required, and lunar orbit inclination. Results suggest that it is best to target the Gateway when it is about 30% into the NRHO, which allows for a transfer time of less than two days and delta-v of 697 m/s. Targeting points away from periapse are best and can be reached with maximum delta-v of 750 m/s. Based on this process, locally optimal flight times are significantly shorter when targeting points in the first-half (outbound) portion of the NRHO. Moreover, locally optimal low lunar orbit inclinations are nearly polar.
Locally Optimal Trajectories from Low Lunar Orbit to Near Rectilinear Halo Orbits
2022-03-05
907671 byte
Conference paper
Electronic Resource
English
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