Optimisation of Lunar Ascending Trajectories

Kurzfassung

Over the last few years, the new challenges of space exploration have been subject of a heated debate among the space community. One of the biggest objectives of future spatial missions is to advance capabilities and learn to conduct complex operations in cis-lunar environments, as intermediate-step on human's journey to Mars and the rest of the solar system. Up until now, extensive experience exists regarding the two body problem and the execution of rendezvous operations in Earth and lunar environments. However, the nature of future spatial missions requires a new approach, being much more beneficial to develop new operations in the vicinity of the Earth-Moon Lagrangian points, where the classic Keplerian dynamics no longer apply, and no mission has ever been attempted under such circumstances. The main purpose of the present work is to study the implementation and optimization of a Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway (LOP-G) to be placed in orbit on a Near Rectilinear Halo Orbit (NRHO) around Earth-Moon Lagrangian points, in order to serve as station to facilitate lunar operations and further interplanetary transfers. As part of this global study, the present research will focus on the optimization of ascent trajectories between the Moon surface and LLO, and study the impact of transcription methods on the implementations.