A numerical mapping of energy gains in a powered Swing-By maneuver

Abstract

The present paper studies the effects of a powered Swing-By maneuver, considering the particular and important situations where there are energy gains for the spacecraft. The objective is to map the energy variations obtained from this maneuver as a function of the three parameters that identify the pure gravity Swing-By with a fixed mass ratio (angle of approach, periapsis distance and velocity at periapsis) and the three parameters that define the impulsive maneuver (direction, magnitude and the point where the impulse is applied). The mathematical model used here is the version of the restricted three-body problem that includes the Lemaître regularization, to increase the accuracy of the numerical integrations. It is developed and implemented by an algorithm that obtains the energy variation of the spacecraft with respect to the largest primary of the system in a maneuver where the impulse is applied inside the sphere of influence of the secondary body, during the passage of the spacecraft. The point of application of the impulse is a free parameter, as well as the direction of the impulse. The results

Analytical study of the swing-by maneuver in an elliptical system

“…In a sequence, Casalino et al (1999a) expanded this analytical study to cover the situation where the impulse is applied in different points of the trajectory. There are several other works considering the study of the swing-by maneuver combined with an impulse in the spacecraft based on numerical integration (Prado 1997;Casalino et al 1999b;Santos et al 2008;Silva et al 2013;Ferreira et al 2015Ferreira et al , 2017aFerreira et al , 2017bFerreira et al , 2017cPiñeros and Prado 2017).…”

Analytical study of the powered Swing-By maneuver for elliptical systems and analysis of its efficiency

“…The variation of the position of the application point of the impulse was made by varying the radius vector of the spacecraft with respect to the secondary body. A numerical map of the solutions for the Earth-Moon system considering the impulse applied in different directions and positions of the orbit is presented in Ferreira et al (2017b). In this work the position of the application of the impulse is defined by the true anomaly of the spacecraft with respect to the secondary body.…”

Effects of Bank Angle During Powered Aerogravity-Assist Maneuver

“…If an impulsive maneuver is applied during the GAM, the direction of the impulse works as one more control for the maneuver, changing the effects of the GA. As a negative point, this powered maneuver requires the use of a space propulsion system, resulting in fuel consumption, and so increasing the cost of the mission. The possible uses of this powered maneuver have been analyzed for planets and moons of the solar system [17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24]. When the maneuver is made close to planets that have significant atmosphere and using a spacecraft with wing-body shape (waverider), the AGAM could also be controlled by the direction and/or magnitude of the aerodynamic forces generated during atmospheric flight [2][3][4][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32].…”

“…In that sense, the present paper has the goal of studying a new version of this maneuver, where the bank angle is assumed to be variable and constituting in a new form to control the AGAM and PAGAM, which was not used before. The mathematical model selected to analyze the applications of the maneuvers and the resulting trajectories around the center of mass of the orbital system is the circular restricted three-body problem (CRTBP) [36], which is highly accepted in this kind of problems [17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35]. The choice of this model is based on our solar system, where the massive body is the sun, the secondary body is a planet with atmosphere used for the maneuver, and the third body is the spacecraft, represented as a massless waverider.…”

“…Previous studies considered the implementation of the impulsive maneuver during the GA [17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24], the control of the AGAM by changing the ballistic parameter and the lift-to-drag ratios, and the inclusion of the direction of the impulse to control the PAGAM [2,25,[33][34][35]. As an extension of those studies, the present paper proposes a new approach to control the direction of lift (component of the aerodynamic force) and to analyze this influence during the PAGAM.…”