Lunar Mission Design Workshop
Sunday, January 27, 2008, 10:00 A.M. at the San Luis Resort
Please note that the Workshop is limited to 20 registrants
Lodging elsewhere on Saturday night is recommended
Instructors:
John Carrico, Applied Defense Solutions
Dave Folta, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Jim Woodburn, Analytical Graphics, Inc.
Workshop Overview
With the announcement by several space agencies world wide to pursue robotic and human lunar missions, the interest in lunar transfer trajectory and lunar orbit analysis is increasing. Some of the techniques used to design, study, and operates lunar missions has evolved significantly since the Apollo era due to model improvement and understanding, as well as the tremendous increase in computer speed.
In addition to trajectory planners and navigators, many other spacecraft engineers, payload specialists, and scientists are interested in the principles of lunar orbits design because of the impact on their systems and can benefit from an understanding of lunar mission design. Many of the techniques presented will be useful for other types of missions as well, such as low-Earth, geosynchronous, and Libration point missions.
Course Content and Objectives
The objective of the workshop is to provide participants with a solid foundation of the principles of the design and operation of lunar missions, especially those to the moon. Workshop participants will be exposed to the fundamentals of lunar mission design, including:
* Launch, parking orbit, and trans-lunar injection modeling
* Transfer trajectory design and B-plane targeting
* Earth rendezvous
* Lunar orbit insertion (LOI)
* Frozen and other lunar Orbits
* Model transition between phases of the mission
* Lunar landing
* Lunar Ascent
* Proximity operations and rendezvous
* Lunar departure/Earth return
These concepts will be initially discussed in a presentation format, and then reinforced through a hands-on walk through of a typical lunar mission design using computer software.
The practical consequences of designing and operating a mission in an uncertain gravity field and limited observational geometry will be discussed. Participants will experience first hand the resulting limitations on:
* Orbit determination accuracy
* Maneuver calibration
* Operational orbit recovery after maneuvers
Students will receive handouts covering recommended practices and common reference frames used in lunar analysis and sources of data for lunar mission design. Upon completion of the workshop, participants will have a working knowledge of the terminology and fundamental components of lunar mission design and awareness of some of the challenges and limitations of lunar mission operations.
Prerequisites
Workshop participants should have a basic working knowledge of fundamental orbital mechanics and orbital maneuvers.
Tools
Exercises will be performed using the STK/Astrogator mission planning tool. Prior experience with STK/Astrogator is not required. All necessary hardware and software will be provided.
Registration and Fees
To ensure the quality of the workshop experience, attendance will be limited to 20 participants. A non-refundable fee of $150.00 will be charged to assist in equipment rental and other workshop related expenses. Participants can register for the workshop at the time of conference registration, using the online conference registration system.
Workshop Instructors
John Carrico is a senior astrodynamics specialist at Applied Defense Solutions in Fulton, MD, and has more than 19 years of flight dynamics experience including rendezvous, low-Earth, geostationary, lunar, libration point, asteroid, and military space missions. Previously, John worked for Analytical Graphics, Inc, where he was the lead developer for the STK/Astrogator module; was a product manager for Orbit Determination Tool Kit, STK, and geographic information systems; and consulted with and performed training for many space agencies and aerospace organizations worldwide. Before AGI, John worked as a contractor to NSPO on the ROCSAT program, and worked as a contractor to NASA Goddard Space Flight Center as a mission analyst and computer scientist. Prior to NASA, John worked in an IR&D laboratory as a contractor to the US Army. John was the operational trajectory design lead for the DSPSE (Clementine) lunar mission, and supported GOES, GRO, ISTP, ROCSAT, WMAP, IBEX, and military spacecraft. He was also the lead for several software projects including the mission analysis and trajectory design tool Swingby. John has experience designing and writing trajectory design algorithms and software used for analysis and operations of spacecraft ranging from LEO to interplanetary missions.
Dave Folta is a senior Aerospace Engineer at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) with 28 years experience in flight dynamics. His current research areas include lunar and interplanetary mission design, advanced trajectory design for Sun-Earth and Earth-Moon libration orbits using manifolds and weak stability boundaries, and formation flying analysis for low Earth, lunar, and libration orbits. He led the GSFC flight dynamics team for the Lunar Prospector mission from initialization through end of operations and supports NASAs upcoming LRO mission. He was the technical lead for development, analysis, simulation, test and in-flight validation of the formation flying of the New Millennium Programs technology demonstration of the EO-1 Formation Flying Experiment, an autonomous maneuvering system. Dave was lead flight dynamics engineer or maneuver lead for numerous missions such as ISEE-3 ICE, SOHO, WIND, Polar, TERRA, JWST, EO-1, and Lunar Prospector and supports upcoming CxP and lunar and Mars architecture studies. He is involved in the development of trajectory design software such as Swingby and GMAT and visualization (CAVE) technology.
Jim Woodburn is chief orbital scientist at Analytical Graphics, Inc. (AGI) and has more than 20 years experience in the modeling of satellite dynamics and spacecraft operations. He is responsible for the maintenance, enhancement, and verification of a wide range of STK and ODTK functions that rely on orbital or attitude dynamics. He has performed research in the areas of high fidelity trajectory integration, orbit lifetime analyses, satellite conjunction prediction, inter-visibility algorithms, coverage analysis and orbital maneuver estimation. Jim is currently working on algorithms and software for deep space trajectory estimation and error analysis. He was instrumental in the development of the Educational Alliance Program at AGI that provides universities free STK software and training to assist in course development. He is also responsible for two patent inventions awarded to AGI. Prior to joining AGI, Jim worked for GE Aerospace (now part of Lockheed Martin) in Springfield, VA, and in Valley Forge, PA. He holds a B.S. in aerospace engineering from Pennsylvania State University and a M.S. and Ph.D. in aerospace engineering from the University of Texas at Austin.