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Author: Bender, Theresa Elizabeth × Item Type: Publication × search.filters.applied.f.isSeriesOfPublicationTitle: Doctor of Philosophy with a Major in Aerospace Engineering × Type: Dissertation ×

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Methodological Improvements for the Integration of Spacecraft Trajectory Optimization into Conceptual Space Mission Design

2024-04-27 , Bender, Theresa Elizabeth

As humans continue to send spacecraft further into space and explore uncharted territories, the implementation of space mission design becomes of paramount importance. Trajectory design and optimization is a key element of space mission design that provides information on the specific route a vehicle will take, as well as numerical estimates pertaining to fuel consumption and transfer time. Due to the complexity, high computational costs, and long runtimes of high-fidelity trajectory analyses, less accurate methods are typically used. Low-fidelity estimates provide sufficient accuracy for initial analyses; however, they often lack valuable information about the trajectory that is important to consider during the conceptual design phase. The overall objective of this research is to develop methodological improvements for spacecraft trajectory design and optimization that provide increased flexibility and better enable trajectory considerations to be incorporated into conceptual mission design studies. This research proposes a design space exploration-based approach to the integration of trajectory design and optimization into conceptual space mission design. It aims to provide a strong characterization of the design space and understanding of the problem behavior, as well as be better suited for early phase design studies that possess unknown or evolving mission requirements. The first phase of this research introduces a design of experiments and sensitivity analysis into the traditional trajectory design process in order to identify the behaviors, sensitivities, and trends of trajectory optimization problems. A regression-based approach for the selection of initial guesses is proposed in order to perform more efficient design studies and gain additional insight about the relationships between variables. The second phase of this research investigates the integration of additional evaluation criteria, namely robustness and sensitivity analyses, that are often performed independent of the trajectory design problem. A methodology is proposed for their quantification and integration into design space exploration studies so that they may be analyzed and visualized alongside performance-based metrics. The third phase of this research integrates mission design considerations into this parametric environment through the superimposition of constraints onto the design space, which results in a set of feasible trajectories that meets performance, robustness, stability, and mission design requirements and constraints. The overarching methodology is then applied to a cislunar demonstration in order to illuminate how its application results in trade studies between trajectory design and other mission design considerations that are more comprehensive and flexible than the traditional design approach allows.

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