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

Abstract

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%.