A circumlunar free return orbit design model that satisfies manned lunar mission constraints is established. By combining analytical method with numerical method, a serial orbit design strategy from initial value design to precision solution is proposed. A simulation example is given, and the conclusion indicates that the method has excellent convergence performance and precision. According to a great deal of simulation results solved by the method, the free return orbit characters such as accessible moon orbit parameters, return orbit parameters, transfer delta velocity, etc. are analyzed, which can supply references to constitute manned lunar mission orbit scheme. manned lunar mission, free return orbit, orbit design, orbit characters Citation:Peng Q B, Shen H X, Li H Y. Free return orbit design and characteristics analysis for manned lunar mission.
The lunar landing stage can be divided into three phases: de-orbit, powered descent and terminal approach. Most fuel is consumed during the powered descent phase. Therefore, the optimization problem of minimum energy is typically focused on this phase. In this paper, a highly precise three-dimensional descent dynamics model is derived, and the main constraints for a manned lunar mission are presented. To solve this complex optimization problem with strict constraints, a hybrid optimization method which combines the collocation method-Gauss pseudospectral method (GPM) and shooting method is proposed. In this approach the GPM is used to provide an initial guess for the shooting method, which is then used to obtain the final optimal solution. The simulation results show that the proposed method can solve the lunar powered descent optimization problem effectively with the solution obtained satisfying all the input constraints and having high precision.
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