Design of Low-Thrust Gravity Assist Trajectories to Europa

TL;DR

This paper develops a comprehensive method for designing low-thrust gravity assist trajectories to Europa using solar electric propulsion, combining global search algorithms with direct transcription optimization.

Contribution

It introduces a novel combination of global search algorithms and Finite Elements in Time for optimizing low-thrust interplanetary transfers.

Findings

Successfully generated initial guess solutions for Earth to Jupiter transfer.

Optimized transfer trajectories from Earth to Europa were obtained.

Developed fast deterministic search algorithms for gravity assist planning.

Abstract

This paper presents the design of a mission to Europa using solar electric propulsion as main source of thrust. A direct transcription method based on Finite Elements in Time was used for the design and optimisation of the entire low-thrust gravity assist transfer from the Earth to Europa. Prior to that, a global search algorithm was used to generate a set of suitable first guess solutions for the transfer to Jupiter, and for the capture in the Jovian system. In particular, a fast deterministic search algorithm was developed to find the most promising set of swing-bys to reach Jupiter A second fast search algorithm was developed to find the best sequence of swing-bys of the Jovian moons. After introducing the global search algorithms and the direct transcription through Finite Elements in Time, the paper presents a number of first guess Solutions and a fully optimised transfer from the Earth to Europa.