Sun influence on two-impulsive earth-to-moon transfers

Abstract

In the present work, the influence of the Sun on the fuel consumption of transfers from circular low Earth orbits (LEOs) to circular low Moon orbits (LMOs) is investigated. The class of two impulse trajectories is considered: a first accelerating velocity impulse tangential to the space vehicle velocity relative to Earth is applied at a circular low Earth orbit and a second braking velocity impulse tangential to the space vehicle velocity relative to Moon is applied at a circular low Moon orbit. The fuel consumption is equivalent to the total characteristic velocity which is defined by the arithmetic sum of velocity changes. Local optimal transfers are calculated through two different approaches: inner transfers and Belbruno-Miller transfers. In both cases, the optimization problem is solved by means of an algorithm based on gradient method in conjunction with Newton-Raphson method.

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