Speaker
Mr
Maiwald Volker
(DLR Institute of Space Systems)
Description
Gravity-assist maneuvers have the potential to be mission enablers, due to ""free energy"" they provide. The efficiency of low-thrust propulsion is further one means of improving mission payload mass. Combining both for a given mission possibly improves overall mission performance, which makes it desirable to investigate low-thrust gravity-assist missions.
For means of investigating a broad range of mission options, the System Analysis Space Segment group of DLR is working on methods of combining the optimization of low-thrust trajectories and gravity-assist sequences with the help of the Tisserand Criterion and shape-based trajectory models. The hurdles faced by violations of Tisserand Criterion premises are shortly discussed and the repercussions these have on planning a gravity-assist sequence for a low-thrust mission. A metholodology, based on benchmarking the results with non-gravity-assist trajectories is presented in this paper, grounded on a loop combining the optimization of the trajectory and the selection of the next gravity-assist partner. Furthermore it is shown how the solution space can be reduced with the help of constraints originating in the maximum possible Delta-V gain and the gravity-assist partner pool."
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Primary author
Mr
Maiwald Volker
(DLR Institute of Space Systems)
