Annika Anderson Brennan McCann David Canales Garcia Morad Nazari
Predicting the orientation of spacecraft traveling within the Cislunar (Earth-Moon) region is necessary to ensure the success of future missions planned within that realm of space. This research looks..
Predicting the orientation of spacecraft traveling within the Cislunar (Earth-Moon) region is necessary to ensure the success of future missions planned within that realm of space. This research looks to consider the coupling between translational and rotational motion to not only improve trajectory accuracy, but to also introduce the prediction of attitude in mission planning. Trajectories computed in the circular restricted full three-body problem (CRF3BP), previously proposed by the authors, allow for the spacecraft to be modeled as a rigid-body rather than a point mass. These trajectories are utilized as initial guesses for a full ephemeris model, where the gravitational field of perturbing bodies and the eccentricity of the Moon's orbit alter these trajectories within this more complex dynamical environment. It has been shown through this research that attitude can be predicted in a full ephemeris model by the CRF3BP, a novel contribution to the field of astrodynamics research.