TY  - CHAP
A1  - Spurmann, Jörn
A1  - Ohndorf, Andreas
A1  - Dachwald, Bernd
A1  - Seboldt, Wolfgang
A1  - Löb, Horst
A1  - Schartner, Karl-Heinz
T1  - Interplanetary trajectory optimization for a sep mission to Saturn
T2  - 60th International Astronautical Congress 2009
N2  - The recently proposed NASA and ESA missions to Saturn and Jupiter pose difficult tasks to mission designers because chemical propulsion scenarios are not capable of transferring heavy spacecraft into the outer solar system without the use of gravity assists. Thus our developed mission scenario based on the joint NASA/ESA Titan Saturn System Mission baselines solar electric propulsion to improve mission flexibility and transfer time. For the calculation of near-globally optimal low-thrust trajectories, we have used a method called Evolutionary Neurocontrol, which is implemented in the low-thrust trajectory optimization software InTrance. The studied solar electric propulsion scenario covers trajectory optimization of the interplanetary transfer including variations of the spacecraft's thrust level, the thrust unit's specific impulse and the solar power generator power level. Additionally developed software extensions enabled trajectory optimization with launcher-provided hyperbolic excess energy, a complex solar power generator model and a variable specific impulse ion engine model. For the investigated mission scenario, Evolutionary Neurocontrol yields good optimization results, which also hold valid for the more elaborate spacecraft models. Compared to Cassini/Huygens, the best found solutions have faster transfer times and a higher mission flexibility in general.
KW  - Spacecraft
KW  - Reusable Rocket Engines
KW  - Hybrid Propellants
Y1  - 2009
SN  - 9781615679089
N1  - 60th International Astronautical Congress 2009 (IAC 2009)
Held 12-16 October 2009, Daejeon, Republic of Korea.
SP  - 5234
EP  - 5248
ER  -