Abstract
With an increasing number of missions planned to cislunar space, on-orbit servicing, inspection, and docking in a multi-body environment will need to take place in highly perturbed orbits for the first time. Thus, the investigation of these relative motion trajectories between two spacecraft is critical to successfully performing rendezvous and proximity operations in a multi-body environment. In this work, mass- and time-optimal trajectories are generated for a low-thrust chaser spacecraft entering into natural and forced loiter sequences about a target on a near rectilinear halo orbit. Constraints on the allowable region for safe rendezvous and proximity operations are applied to investigate the effects on feasible loitering maneuvers. Fuel costs are compared for transfers to both forced and natural loitering trajectories to determine the propellant reduction from leveraging the relative dynamics of NRHO manifolds.
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The first author would like to acknowledge the support of the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 2038237. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. The author would also like to acknowledge the support of NASA under ROSES Grant No. 80NSSC19K1643.
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Sandel, C., Sood, R. Natural and Forced Spacecraft Loitering in a Near Rectilinear Halo Orbit. J Astronaut Sci 71, 28 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40295-024-00446-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40295-024-00446-7