P5A - From GTO to Mars

References

  1. Paul A. Penzo: Mission Design for a Wright Brother's Centennial Mars Airplane Mission in 2003; AAS/AIAA Space Flight Mechanics Meeting, Clearwater, Florida; 23-26 January, 2000; Paper AAS 00-196; 12 pp.
  2. Charles D. Brown: Spacecraft Mission Design; AIAA Education Series; ISBN 1-56347-041-1; 187 pp; 1992; Including: ORB:AIAA Mission Design Software
  3. J.D. Giorgini et al.: JPL's On-Line Solar System Data Service; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol 28, No. 3, p. 1158, 1996.
  4. Stephen Wolfram: The Mathematica Book, 4th ed., 1999.

Preliminary Analysis of MEGA (Moon-Earth-Gravity Assist) proposal by P. Penzo (patched conic procedure for 6 elliptic and 3 hyperbolic sections around 4 centers of gravity with 4 changes of velocity and/or direction)

Penzo's dates:

Earth departureMars arrivalToF[days]C3[km^2/s^2](Penzo)
2003-05-312003-12-1720009
2005-08-042006-02-2220216
2005-09-022006-10-0239516
2007-09-132008-08-1934114
2009-10-182010-08-2731311
2011-10-302012-09-0931410

(6) Earth Mars Transfer

The following diagrams for C3 values have been calculated with JPL Horizons ephemeris data (osculating elements for longitude and true anomaly, vector data for radius and flight angle) and the analytic formulae used by the ORB package. According to Penzo's proposal, type 2 transfers only are considered for the years 2007, 2009, and 2011. The data have been calculated with intervals of 1 day. Mathemathica 4.1 is being used for calculations and production of diagrams.

Earth departure 2007

More detailed data for the departure date proposed by Penzo (2007-09-13) are shown in the following table.

Time of Flight [days] Range Mars at arrival [km] Longitude Mars at arrival[deg] Inclination of Transfer Ellipse[deg] True Anomaly of Earth on Transfer Ellipse[deg] alpha=Flight direction change[deg] C3 [km^2/s^2] hyperbolic excess velocity [km/s]
334.243263549.196.474-2.24109 352.3612.3217813.83983.72019
335.243136337.196.933-2.17901 352.2642.2671813.77043.71085
336.243007938.197.392-2.11876 352.1662.2150013.70613.70218
337.242878361.197.851-2.06026 352.0662.1651813.64673.69415
338.242747611.198.311-2.00342 351.9652.1176613.59203.68673
339.242615697.198.771-1.94817 351.8632.0724213.54153.67988
340.242482625.199.232-1.89444 351.7592.0294113.49523.67358
341.242348403.199.693-1.84216 351.6531.9886013.45283.66780
342.242213037.200.155-1.79125 351.5461.9499513.41403.66252
343.242076537.200.617-1.74167 351.4381.9134613.37893.65771
344.241938908.201.080-1.69335 351.3281.8791113.347103.65336
345.241800160.201.543-1.64624 351.2171.8468613.31843.64944
346.241660299.202.007-1.60029 351.1041.8167113.29293.64594
347.241519334.202.472-1.55545 350.9901.7886613.27033.64284
348.241377272.202.937-1.51167 350.8741.7626713.25053.64013
349.241234122.203.402-1.46891 350.7571.7387613.23353.63779
350.241089891.203.868-1.42714 350.6381.7169013.21903.63580
351.240944589.204.335-1.38630 350.5181.6970713.20713.63416
352.240798223.204.802-1.34637 350.3971.6792913.19763.63285
353.240650802.205.270-1.30731 350.2741.6635113.19053.63187
354.240502334.205.738-1.26908 350.1491.6497913.18563.63120
355.240352828.206.207-1.23166 350.0241.6379913.18303.63083
356.240202293.206.677-1.19501 349.8961.6282013.18253.63076
357.240050737.207.147-1.1591 349.7681.6203513.18403.63098
358..239898170.207.617-1.12391 349.6371.6144313.18773.63148
359.239744600.208.089-1.08942 349.5061.6104213.19333.63226
360.239590037.208.561-1.05559 349.3731.6082813.20093.63330
361.239434489.209.033-1.0224 349.2381.6079813.21043.63461
362.239277967.209.506-0.989827 349.1021.6095013.22173.63617
363.239120479.209.980-0.957856 348.9641.6127813.23493.63798

Earth departure 2009

Earth departure 2011

Preliminary Conclusions:

The optimum arrival dates (minimum of C3, calculated with ORB) are pretty near the dates proposed by Penzo. Since the Earth departure dates in Penzo's proposal are fixed by the Moon's position relative to the transfer velocity vector, these dependences of the different flight phases have to be considered as soon as all phases are investigated in more detail.

Penzo's table presents for C3 integer values only, therefore a comparison with ORB derived data is not really possible, although a fairly good correlation can be seen.

(5) Earth Departure - Alternative Heights of Perigee

deltaV3 = deltaV3a + deltaV3b

Note: All deltaV calculations are for infinite thrust only.

Penzo's case: hPerig = 300 km

Angle of asymptote: beta

deltaV3a[km/s]hPerig = 300 kmhPerig = 1000 kmhPerig = 3000 km
hApog = 0.6*10^6 km0.06100.06410.0723
hApog = 1.0*10^6 km0.03650.03840.0433
hApog = 1.4*10^6 km0.02600.02740.0309

Earth departure/Mars arrival: 2007-09-13/2008-08-19

Assumption: vHE = 3.7000 km/s

hPerig = 300 kmhPerig = 1000 kmhPerig = 3000 km
vParab[km/s]10.925910.394709.2199
deltaV3b[km/s]0.60950.63890.7147
beta[deg]35.567637.076840.8543

Earth departure/Mars arrival: 2009-10-18/2010-08-27

Assumption: vHE = 3.2200 km/s

hPerig = 300 kmhPerig = 1000 kmhPerig = 3000 km
vParab[km/s]10.925910.394709.2199
deltaV3b[km/s]0.46460.48730.5461
beta[deg]31.570432.967236.4964

Updated: 2004-05-15


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