Design and Optimization of Low-Thrust Trajectories with Gravity Assists

Missions such as Mariner 10, Voyager 1, Galileo, and Stardust all used gravity-assist flybys to achieve their mission goals efficiently. Methods to design such gravity-assist missions are fairly well developed and generally assume all major maneuvers are performed impulsively by chemical rockets. The recent success of the low-thrust Deep Space 1 mission demonstrates that low-thrust (high-efficiency) propulsion is ready to be used on future missions, potentially reducing the required propellant mass or the total time of flight. By combining both gravity-assist flybys and low-thrust propulsion, future missions could enjoy the benefits of both. To realize such missions, an effective design methodology is needed. A two-step approach to the design and optimization of low-thrust gravity-assist trajectories is described. The first step is a search through a broad range of potential trajectories. To speed up this search, a simplified shape-based trajectory model is used. The best trajectories are chosen using a heuristic cost function. The second step optimizes the most promising trajectories using an efficient parameter optimization. method. Examples of missions designed using this approach are presented, including voyages to Vesta, Tempel 1, Ceres, Jupiter, and Pluto.

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