When traveling across multiple planetary or moon systems, invariant manifold structures may be leveraged to allow for efficient transfer within multi-body dynamics. However, the sole use of these structures is restrictive in many cases, as the manifold may not reach a desired departure or arrival location in the phase space. In particular, the use of low-thrust propulsion together with manifold dynamics requires an optimization framework that captures these mechanisms into a single problem. This work proposes an approach to design gravity-assist low-thrust transfers that leverage manifold structures at departure or arrival. The approach involves a modification to the Sims-Flanagan transcription by incorporating parametrization of arrival to a manifold Poincaré section instead of a celestial body. A key advantage is its use of two-body dynamics for the propagation of the majority of the transfer. This enables large-scale and realistic assessment of possible solutions through a combination of ODE-based propagation of the manifold, and Lagrange coefficients-based propagation of the inter-system portion of the transfer. Leveraging the proposed method, a low-thrust transfer from Earth to the Sun-Venus system, also incorporating an Earth fly-by in between, is studied.


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    Title :

    Gravity-Assist Low-Thrust Inter-System Trajectory Design with Manifold Captures


    Additional title:

    J Astronaut Sci


    Contributors:
    Shimane, Yuri (author) / Ho, Koki (author)

    Published in:

    Publication date :

    2022-04-01


    Size :

    25 pages




    Type of media :

    Article (Journal)


    Type of material :

    Electronic Resource


    Language :

    English