FöRFATTARE
Qadir, Khurram

INSTITUTION
Rymdvetenskap, Kiruna /

SAMMANFATTNING
Gravity assist trajectories are a crucial part of any space mission involving interplanetary travel of spacecraft. The reason that gravity assist is important for these missions is that they allow the spacecraft to reach outer planets which otherwise would not be possible because of the large amount of energy required. Gravity assist trajectories allow the spacecraft to gain momentum from the planets. During a close approach of a gravitational body momentum is exchanged between the spacecraft and the gravitational body. In reality the planet loses momentum but due to the huge mass difference the change in velocity of the gravitational body is negligible compared to the gain in velocity of the spacecraft. Although there exists software’s for multiple gravity assist trajectory design but they are not readily available to the academia and have complicated user interfaces. The ultimate goal of this thesis is to enhance the Lambert’s problem solver tool available at the university and incorporate the gravity assist functionality. All the technicalities of the Lambert’s problem are presented as it is an integral part of the complete problem. Pruning techniques are also incorporated so as to make the software run the simulations in a reasonable amount of time.

ISSN 1653-0187 / ISRN LTU-PB-EX--09/062--SE / NR 2009:062