Speaker
Mr
Andrew Cox
(Purdue University)
Description
With the increasing complexity of cislunar and interplanetary missions, as well as the introduction of a wide range of scenarios involving small spacecraft, there is significant motivation to design trajectories that require fewer resources and may be sustainable over longer time intervals. Progress toward such goals is achievable by leveraging the natural dynamical structures available within multi-body regimes to guide the selection of a baseline trajectory. As demonstrated by previous missions, such as ARTEMIS, three-body dynamical structures can provide innovative trajectory design options. Such analysis can be particularly beneficial for upcoming mission concepts including exoplanet observatories, the redirection of asteroids, as well as lunar and interplanetary CubeSat missions. Tools that enable active selection of dynamical structures available in a multi-body regime may also supply the guidance necessary for rapid and well-informed trajectory design in chaotic environments.
The accessibility of regions of interest in a multi-body regime is a challenging metric to represent and the efficient selection of specific solutions is nontrivial for dynamically sensitive environments. In higher-fidelity multi-body models, the generation of a large set of solutions demands significant, and often prohibitive, time and computational resources. However, the Circular Restricted Three-Body Problem (CR3BP) is well known and this model offers a reasonable approximation to the dynamical behavior, e.g., in the Earth-Moon and Sun-Earth systems; periodic and quasi-periodic orbits in these dynamical environments also tend to persist in higher-fidelity models. Associated with these ordered motions are natural manifolds, which are useful in assembling low-cost transfers. In fact, researchers in the astrodynamics community continue to investigate a large number of solutions and techniques that may be useful for orbit design and operation within multi-body dynamical environments.
To incorporate knowledge of the dynamical accessibility of specific regions in the Earth-Moon and Sun-Earth systems into the trajectory design process, Purdue University, in partnership with NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, has developed a graphical and interactive design environment that enables rapid and well-informed construction of complex trajectories that leverage natural solutions. This trajectory design tool is comprised of several modules that offer guidance into the leveraging of known dynamical structures for the active selection of trajectory arcs. For instance, to support various mission scenarios, an interactive catalog of periodic and quasi-periodic solutions in the CR3BP supplies the capability for straightforward design trades and orbital selection. Pre-computed libration point orbits are also available in some systems, with the option for on-demand manifold generation. Additional modules offer the capability to identify alternative periodic and quasi-periodic orbits using point-and-click selection on a Poincaré map. Incorporating maps (and/or surfaces of section) into the trajectory design process enables detection of additional orbit options and connections, and provides insight into the dynamical sensitivity. This interactive design tool enables rapid and well-informed construction of complex trajectories in a user-friendly environment that offers intuitive access to dynamical systems theory techniques including Poincaré maps. The end-to-end trajectories are then available for transition to higher-fidelity models, for refinement via the addition of various constraints, for input to other tools such as GMAT.
| Applicant type | First author |
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Primary authors
Mr
Andrew Cox
(Purdue University)
Mr
Davide Guzzetti
(Purdue University)
Ms
Natasha Bosanac
(Purdue University)
Co-authors
Mrs
Cassandra Webster
(NASA Goddard Space Flight Center)
Mr
Dave Folta
(NASA Goddard Space Flight Center)
Prof.
Kathleen Howell
(Purdue University)
