Abstract
Trajectories of spacecraft with electro-jet low-thrust engines are studied for missions planning to deliver samples of matter from small bodies of the Solar System: asteroids Vesta and Fortuna, and Martian moon Phobos. Flight trajectories are analyzed for the mission to Phobos, the limits of optimization of payload spacecraft mass delivered to it are determined, and an estimate is given to losses in the payload mass when a low-thrust engine with constant outflow velocity is used. The model of an engine with ideally regulated low thrust is demonstrated to be convenient for calculations and analysis of flight trajectories of a low-thrust spacecraft.
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Original Russian Text © R.Z. Akhmetshin, G.B. Efimov, T.M. Eneev, 2009, published in Kosmicheskie Issledovaniya, 2009, Vol. 47, No. 1, pp. 38–47.
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Akhmetshin, R.Z., Efimov, G.B. & Eneev, T.M. Trajectories for missions of low-thrust spacecraft aimed at delivery of soil samples from main belt asteroids and Phobos. Cosmic Res 47, 34–43 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1134/S0010952509010055
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1134/S0010952509010055