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Star Searches for Patched-Conic Trajectories

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Abstract

Star is a mission design tool that globally searches for patched-conic trajectories that satisfy a set of user-defined constraints. It has been used to develop dozens of mission concepts at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory spanning multi-target rendezvous, sample return, multiple gravity assists (ballistic, high- and low-thrust), central-body switch to escape Earth or capture at a planet, planetary moon tours, and small-body tours sequenced from a pool of thousands of candidate targets. Star exhibits polynomial algorithmic complexity by constructing trajectories from independently computed encounter times, transfer legs, and flybys. Example missions of a ballistic transfer to Titan, tour of the Trojan asteroids, and low-thrust rendezvous with Mercury demonstrate the efficacy of the tool.

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Notes

  1. https://montepy.jpl.nasa.gov.

  2. See https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/api/horizons.api?format=text &COMMAND=MB and https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb_query.cgi for major and small bodies available to Star .

  3. https://ssd-api.jpl.nasa.gov/doc/horizons.html.

  4. Star accesses orientation data via the https://ssd-api.jpl.nasa.gov/doc/horizons.html JPL HORIZONS ephemeris system.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Jon Sims for first encouraging the application of Star at JPL, and Keith Grogan, Chet Borden, Steve Matousek, and Tim McElrath for supporting its continued development. The research described in this paper was carried out at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Copyright \(\copyright\) 2022 California Institute of Technology. U.S Government sponsorship acknowledged.

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  1. Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, 4800 Oak Grove Dr., Pasadena, CA, 91109, USA

    Damon Landau, Stefano Campagnola & Etienne Pellegrini

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  1. Damon Landau
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Correspondence to Damon Landau.

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Landau, D., Campagnola, S. & Pellegrini, E. Star Searches for Patched-Conic Trajectories. J Astronaut Sci 69, 1613–1648 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40295-022-00350-y

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