Contributions of Venus swing-by maneuver in Earth-Mars transfers

Resumo

Copyright © 2019 by the International Astronautical Federation (IAF). All rights reserved.In this paper we investigate the role played by Jupiter in Earth-Mars transfers with a Venus flyby. For that, transfers are computed exploring the natural dynamics of the Restricted Three-Body Problem framework under the influence of the Sun and Jupiter gravitational potentials. The motivation for the gravity assist by Venus is two-fold. First, to design a mission to obtain data both from Venus and Mars, and second, to seek interesting solutions for a one-way or a round trip to Mars, providing a more flexible time window for a eventual return to the Earth. For the sake of comparison, direct Earth-Mars transfers are also built in the same framework. In both analysis, four parameters at departure of Earth are defined, while a fifth parameter appears in the transfers with the swing-by maneuver by Venus. We present our results and explore the effect of Jupiter in the trade-off between the Earth-Mars cost and the total Earth-Mars flight time. Additionally solutions with reduced waiting time for Hohmann transfer return to the Earth with higher values of total ?v are reported. We conclude suggesting possible applications and extensions of this preliminary analysis.