Multiphase Trajectory Optimization of a Lunar Return Mission to an LEO Space Station

Abstract

Lunar exploration architecture can be made more flexible and reliable with the support of a low-Earth orbit (LEO) space station. This study therefore evaluated a proposed hybrid optimization scheme to design the entire trajectory of a reusable spacecraft starting from trans-Earth injection (EI) at the perilune and ending at an LEO space station. As such a trajectory has multiple constraints and multiple dynamical models, it is divided into the trans-Earth phase, aerocapture phase, and postatmospheric phase. The optimization scheme is performed at two levels: sublevel and top level. At the sublevel, two novel pseudo rules are proposed to optimize the trans-Earth trajectory so that it satisfies the coplanar constraints of the space station. Then, in the aerocapture phase, the bank angle is optimized to satisfy the mission constraints, and in the atmospheric phase, the one-impulsive maneuver is performed and optimized to insert the spacecraft into the target space station orbit. The multiple phases are connected to each other by boundary conditions where the terminal state of the previous phase is transformed into the initial state of the following phase. At the top level, the vacuum perigee height is selected as the mission design variable based on problem characteristics analysis and a hybrid optimization scheme is conducted to minimize the total velocity increment. The simulation results demonstrate that the proposed hybrid optimization method is effective for the design of an entire trajectory with acceptable velocity cost which is less than that in the previous study. The coplanar constraints of the space station and other mission constraints in each phase are also satisfied. Furthermore, the proposed trajectory design method is shown to be applicable to a reusable spacecraft returning to an LEO space station parked in any arbitrary orbital plane.