Incorporation of Lunar Passages into Secondary Payload Transfer Design
A dramatic increase in the number of missions for inserting both large satellites as well as rideshare spacecraft into cislunar trajectories has been noted as of recently. While bal- listic lunar transfers (BLTs) have proven a reliable means for sending primary missions to their destination orbits, the inflexible jettison conditions imposed upon secondary payloads may significantly limit viable pathways. This investigation is centered about designing a framework to construct lunar transfers for secondary payloads from various commissioning maneuver (CM) states to select periodic orbits near the Moon. These continuous passage- ways are modelled in the Bi-Circular Restricted 4-Body Problem (BCR4BP), while necessary dynamical insights are recovered from the application of dynamical systems theory to both the BCR4BP and the Circular Restricted 3-Body Problem (CR3BP). To understand the impact of a Moon encounter on an outbound lunar transfer, families of BLTs are generated for primary payloads, where select members that have close flybys are isolated an examined. A modular, multi-phase framework is then developed, stemming from the lunar encounter. With this, transfers from a variety of sample CM states to Halo, Butterfly and Lyapunov orbits are presented. The versatility of the design framework is highlighted through a case study for a double-flyby transfer to a select Lyapunov orbit. The presented analysis provides an intuitive strategy for diversifying the otherwise limited pool of viable transfers that send secondary payloads to cislunar orbits.
History
Degree Type
- Master of Science
Department
- Aeronautics and Astronautics
Campus location
- West Lafayette