Low lunar frozen orbits can be used to enable long-duration missions at the Moon while also minimizing the fuel usage necessary for orbit maintenance. There is no analytical expression for determining these frozen orbits, so a high-fidelity simulation approach is required. A differential correction targeting approach was used to find initial conditions that zeroed out argument of periapsis and eccentricity growth. This approach was used during the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter extended mission period for four different frozen orbit instances. Observations of the evolution of key orbit elements (e.g. periapsis altitude and the eccentricity vector) led to an understanding of the orbit dynamics and helped to formulate a simple observational approach to finding frozen or quasi-frozen low lunar orbits that looks at minimizing the spread in the periselene altitude evolution.


    Access

    Access via TIB

    Check availability in my library


    Export, share and cite



    Title :

    An Observational Approach to Low Lunar Frozen Orbit Design


    Contributors:

    Conference:

    2023 AAS/AIAA Astrodynamics Specialist Conference ; 2023 ; Big Sky, MT, US


    Type of media :

    Conference paper


    Type of material :

    No indication


    Language :

    English





    Lunar Prospector Frozen Orbit Mission design

    Folta, David / Galal, Ken / Lozier, David | AIAA | 1998


    Lunar Prospector Frozen Orbit Mission Design

    Folta, D. C. / Galal, K. / Lozier, D. et al. | British Library Conference Proceedings | 1998


    Design of Elliptical Lunar Frozen Orbit Considering Lunar J2 Perturbations

    Matsumoto, Yuki / Nakamura, Ryo / Kikuchi, Junji et al. | AIAA | 2024


    Frozen Orbit for Lunar Orbiter (AAS 03-386)

    Weilian, Y. / American Astronautical Society | British Library Conference Proceedings | 2004