A branching method for ballistic trajectories and its application to JUICE mission
Abstract
In any interplanetary mission it is important to grant the feasibility of flying by secondary bodies, in order both to achieve the scientific targets and to maximize payload, by reducing propellant consumption and shielding mass. JUICE mission focuses on Jupiter major moons, in particular Ganymede, Callisto, and Europa, and on the space environment driven by the planet's magnetosphere. Thus both goals and constraints of the mission must be considered. This paper presents a procedure for the design of a gravity assisted mission, which considers only ballistic arcs; future developments foresee the inclusion of thrust manoeuvres. Encounters are thought as punctual, like in a patched conic model; no simplifying assumptions have been made for the satellites orbits, although a preliminary design could allow for them. The procedure is not based on the resolution of the Lambert problem for phasing, but takes the maximum flyby bending angle into account: this provides the automatic pruning of the unfeasible arcs, that often result from the Lambert problem solution, and an easy extension to more complete gravitational models. The method has been applied to the reference JUICE orbiter trajectory, starting from either G2 or G3 flybys, in order to reach Europa quickly and reduce the number of perijoves.
- Publication:
-
European Planetary Science Congress
- Pub Date:
- September 2013
- Bibcode:
- 2013EPSC....8..264L