EPHEMERIS MODEL OPTIMIZATION OF LUNAR ORBIT INSERTION FROM A FREE RETURN TRAJECTORY

With the discovery of water ice at the moon's south pole, future human lunar exploration will likely occur at polar sites and, therefore, require high inclination orbits. This work details an automated architecture for constructing minimum-fuel lunar orbit insertion sequences while ensuring crew safety by maintaining a ballistic Earth return trajectory, which is free to vary during optimization. The Jacobian of the constraints is derived analytically to eliminate the need for finite difference approximations; where necessary, gradients are determined with linear perturbation theory. An impulsive engine model is used before conversion to a finite thrust model.