CHANG'E-2 lunar escape maneuvers to the Sun–Earth L2 libration point mission

This paper addresses lunar escape maneuvers of the first Chinese Sun–Earth L2 libration point mission by the CHANG'E-2 satellite, which is also the world's first satellite to reach the L2 point from a lunar orbit. The lunar escape maneuvers are heavily constrained by the remaining propellant and the condition of telemetry, track and command, among others. First, these constraints are analyzed and summarized to design a target L2 Lissajous orbit and an initial transfer trajectory. Second, the maneuver mathematical models are studied. The multilevel maneuver schemes which consist of phasing maneuvers and a final lunar escape maneuver are designed for actual operations. Based on the scheme analysis and comparison, the 2-maneuver scheme with a 5.3-h-period phasing orbit is ultimately selected. Finally, the mission status based on the scheme is presented and the control operation results are discussed in detail. The methodology in this paper is especially beneficial and applicable to a future multi-mission instance in the deep space exploration.     

Changes in the Earth’s ozonosphere due to ionization of high-latitude atmosphere by solar protons in October, 2003

Using the data of the Russian KORONAS-F satellite and American GOES spacecraft on solar cosmic ray fluxes associated with powerful events which occurred on the Sun at the end of October - the beginning of November, 2003, calculations of ionization of high-latitude (70° N) atmosphere were carried out. The calculations have shown that the maximum values of ionization for the chosen latitude lie in the range of 50–70 km. The largest ionization was caused by the flare on November 28, 2003. Based on a numerical photochemical simulation it is shown that, as a result of intensification of catalytic cycles with participation of ozone-destroying NO and OH, the concentration of ozone decreased by 30% at ionization maximum altitudes.Translated from Kosmicheskie Issledovaniya, Vol. 42, No. 6, 2004, pp. 653–662.Original Russian Text Copyright © 2004 by Krivolutsky, Kuminov, Vyushkova, Kuznetsov, Myagkova.     

Broad-search algorithms for the spacecraft trajectory design of Callisto–Ganymede–Io triple flyby sequences from 2024 to 2040, Part I: Heuristic pruning of the search space

Triple flybys of the Galilean moons of Jupiter can capture a spacecraft into orbit about Jupiter or quickly adjust the Jupiter-centered orbit of an already captured spacecraft. Because Callisto does not participate in the Laplace resonance among Ganymede, Europa, and Io, triple flyby sequences involving gravity-assists of Callisto, Ganymede, and Io occur only aperiodically for limited time windows. An exhaustive search of triple-flyby trajectories over a 16-year period from 2024 to 2040 using “blind” searching would require 8,415,358 Lambert function calls to find only 127,289 possible triple flyby trajectories. Because most of these Lambert function calls would not converge to feasible solutions, it is much more efficient to prune the solution space using a heuristic algorithm and then direct a much smaller number of Lambert function calls to find feasible triple flyby solutions. The novel “Phase Angle Pruning Heuristic” is derived and used to reduce the search space by 99%.     

Broad-search algorithms for the spacecraft trajectory design of Callisto–Ganymede–Io triple flyby sequences from 2024 to 2040, Part II: Lambert pathfinding and trajectory solutions

Triple-satellite-aided capture employs gravity-assist flybys of three of the Galilean moons of Jupiter in order to decrease the amount of ΔV$\mathrm{\Delta }V$ required to capture a spacecraft into Jupiter orbit. Similarly, triple flybys can be used within a Jupiter satellite tour to rapidly modify the orbital parameters of a Jovicentric orbit, or to increase the number of science flybys. In order to provide a nearly comprehensive search of the solution space of Callisto–Ganymede–Io triple flybys from 2024 to 2040, a third-order, Chebyshev's method variant of the p-iteration solution to Lambert's problem is paired with a second-order, Newton–Raphson method, time of flight iteration solution to the _V∞$V_{\infty }$-matching problem. The iterative solutions of these problems provide the orbital parameters of the Callisto–Ganymede transfer, the Ganymede flyby, and the Ganymede–Io transfer, but the characteristics of the Callisto and Io flybys are unconstrained, so they are permitted to vary in order to produce an even larger number of trajectory solutions. The vast amount of solution data is searched to find the best triple-satellite-aided capture window between 2024 and 2040.