AUTHOR(S): 

Giancarlo Genta, P. Federica Maffione

TITLE

Comparison between Different Approaches to Interplanetary Mission Design

KEYWORDS

Interplanetary mission design, Interplanetary trajectories, Launch opportunities, Interplanetary mission optimization

ABSTRACT

A general purpose design code for interplanetary missions is presented. The code, based on theMatLab environment, allows to deal with both impulsive propulsion (using the patched conics approach) and low continuous thrust. In the latter case, the solver developed specifically for this program is based on an indirect method. More general standard solvers, based on direct methods, like the FALCON.m code can, however, be used. The present paper shows a comparison between different approaches and methods, to evaluate the reliability and accuracy of the proposed code in different applications, by using a number of examples. Finally, some extensions of the code, which are planned for the future, are mentioned.

Cite this paper

Giancarlo Genta, P. Federica Maffione. (2017) Comparison between Different Approaches to Interplanetary Mission Design. International Journal of Signal Processing, 2, 54-66