Designing Multiple Missed Thrust Event Resilient Trajectories using Virtual Swarms

Note: This post is adapted from my conference paper, which was presented at the 2022 AAS/AIAA Astrodynamics Specialists Conference. You can read the full paper here. Abstract Low-thrust propulsion is an enabling factor for the next generation of deep space missions. Unfortunately, their limited thrust capabilities render long-duration thrusting arcs necessary. Any interruption to the thrust…

An Introduction to NASA’s CAPSTONE Mission

Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment NASA’s CAPSTONE mission is a whole deep-space tech demonstrator packed into approximately 730 cubed inches. Even its acronym, CAPSTONE (Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment), does a whole lot in a small space. From leading our return to the moon to demonstrating exciting…

Minimum Periapse for a Gravity Assist

TLDR: 100 km above the atmosphere Gravity assists are an astrodynamics maneuver to steal a small amount of a planet’s angular momentum to give your spacecraft a much more significant boost. Exactly how much momentum you can steal is defined by the arrival velocity vector relative to the planet and the maximum turning angle you…

Adding Non-Standard Bodies to SPICE using Horizons

In astrodynamics, when you need high-quality Ephemeris data for some celestial body, you generally turn to NASA’s NAIF’s (Navigation and Ancillary Information Facility) SPICE toolkit. Because the setup of SPICE with non-standard bodies is a one-off step and usually the first step in several of my projects, it’s something I only do a handful of…

Expected Thrust Fraction: Resilient Trajectory Design Applied to the Earth Return Orbiter – AAS/AIAA SFMC- 2021

Note: This post is adapted from my conference paper, which was presented at the Space Flight Mechanics Conference in Winter 2021. You can read the full paper here. Abstract – Expected Thrust Fraction: Resilient Trajectory Design Applied to the Earth Return Orbiter Electric propulsion is an enabling technology for NASA’s Mars Sample Return mission that affords an…

Exoplanet Archive

In 2019 Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz received the Nobel Prize for their 1995 discovery of an exoplanet, which is just a planet orbiting about a start that isn’t our sun. Since then, exoplanet discovery has boomed with us now knowing of over 4000 different exoplanets. Most of these exoplanets, and their corresponding data, are…