借月球引力节省火星探测器发射能量的方法

On Calculating Saving of Energy in Launching Mars Probe by Lunar Swingby Technique

提出了通过月球引力加速来节省火星探测器发射燃料的方法。基于共面假设 ,采用轨迹的圆锥曲线拼接法 ,建立了简化的二维数学模型。编程计算得出了经过月球近旁转向后火星探测器的能量增加值和可节省的速度增量。结果表明 :在发射火星探测器时 ,用此方法能够降低发射成本 。

This paper′s aim is to reduce rocket engine fuel or to increase effective load of Mars probe through utilizing lunar gravitation to achieve energy saving. In the full paper, we explain in much detail how to utilize the principle of lunar swingby technique to calculate such energy saving. Here we give only a briefing of our explanation. According to coplanarity hypothesis, we adopt simplified two-dimensional mathematical model. Preliminary analysis of the problem is given by using patched-conic technique. We derived the formula for calculating the required velocity increment of launching Mars probe by lunar swingby technique. Through simulation, we obtained data of saved energy and velocity increment with different velocities of entering lunar sphere of influence. For the typical Hohmann transfer case, we got a saving in velocity increment of 174 m/s. Results show that we can save about 5% of velocity increment or add about 5% of effective load of Mars probe by using lunar swingby technique.