A general procedure for predicting launch opportunities for the RAE-B lunar orbiter mission is presented. It is shown that knowledge of the earth-moon distance and lunar phase and declination are sufficient to determine launch periods consistent with present mission constraints and to approximately predict launch, transfer, and arrival parameters such as park orbit coast time, the possiblity of shadows in all phases of the mission, arrival energy, and the amount of sunlit orbit time in the lunar orbit. Constraints on RAE-B include bounds on the spin axis-sun angle in the translunar trajectory, an upper limit on the arrival energy, and a minimum time for sunlight duration in lunar orbits are being considered for the mission. Comparisons are made of relevant parameters for the two cases. The general features of launch, transfer, and arrival parameters are discussed and are shown to be a function of lunar declination, flight time, and launch azimuth.


    Access

    Access via TIB

    Check availability in my library


    Export, share and cite



    Title :

    On obtaining lunar mission launch opportunities


    Contributors:

    Publication date :

    1972-02-01


    Type of media :

    Preprint


    Type of material :

    No indication


    Language :

    English


    Keywords :



    Lunar mission -- Launch to rendezvous

    Mickelwait, A.B. | Engineering Index Backfile | 1963


    Space launch system: Mission opportunities

    Donahue, Benjamin | IEEE | 2017


    Dual Launch Robotic and Human Lunar Mission Architecture

    D. L. Jones / J. Mulqueen / T. Percy et al. | NTIS | 2010


    Lunar Mission Architectures Compatible with Economic Launch Systems

    British Library Conference Proceedings | 1995