Design Of Interplanetary Trajectories With Multiple Synergetic Gravitational Assist Maneuvers Via Particle Swarm Optimization

Design of Interplanetary Trajectories with Multiple Synergetic Gravitational Assist Maneuvers Via Particle Swarm Optimization

The design capacity for synergetic gravity assists (powered flyby's) changes the type of possible optimal trajectories to distant planets. Heuristic optimization methods have potential to produce useful trajectories for design purposes. The application of Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) is used to determine optimal mission trajectories from Earth to planets of interest, subject to synergetic gravity assist maneuver(s) in between. In order to verify the results from PSO, past missions are re-examined from a new design perspective. The trajectories designed by aid of PSO are compared to the trajectories involving the real mission dates. Test results are obtained for Voyager 1, Voyager 2, and Cassini. The results closely resemble those of actual mission data, providing support for the new design method involving PSO and synergetic gravitational assists. The computation of these solutions offers the unique benefit of costing one to two minutes of wall clock time with standard desktop or laptop computing systems. In addition to the past missions that are considered for re-design, the work then extends the design method to a newly proposed multiple gravity-assist mission from Earth to Saturn that could take place within the next few years. Two different mission timelines are considered. Direct routes and multiple gravity assist (MGA) routes to Saturn are compared. The best solutions from PSO for the MGA routes are on an order of one half to one third the propellant cost as compared to the direct routes for the launch and arrival dates chosen. Finally, consideration for promising future research directions involving PSO and synergetic gravity assist maneuvers is discussed.

Human Health and Performance Risks of Space Exploration Missions

Deep Space Propulsion

The technology of the next few decades could possibly allow us to explore with robotic probes the closest stars outside our Solar System, and maybe even observe some of the recently discovered planets circling these stars. This book looks at the reasons for exploring our stellar neighbors and at the technologies we are developing to build space probes that can traverse the enormous distances between the stars. In order to reach the nearest stars, we must first develop a propulsion technology that would take our robotic probes there in a reasonable time. Such propulsion technology has radically different requirements from conventional chemical rockets, because of the enormous distances that must be crossed. Surprisingly, many propulsion schemes for interstellar travel have been suggested and await only practical engineering solutions and the political will to make them a reality. This is a result of the tremendous advances in astrophysics that have been made in recent decades and the perseverance and imagination of tenacious theoretical physicists. This book explores these different propulsion schemes – all based on current physics – and the challenges they present to physicists, engineers, and space exploration entrepreneurs. This book will be helpful to anyone who really wants to understand the principles behind and likely future course of interstellar travel and who wants to recognizes the distinctions between pure fantasy (such as Star Trek’s ‘warp drive’) and methods that are grounded in real physics and offer practical technological solutions for exploring the stars in the decades to come.