Abstract:

To describe the flight profile more accurately, a three-phase atmospheric flight model is proposed in which the atmospheric flight is divided into the descent phase, the level flight phase and the ascent phase, and is described by the atmospheric flight angle and flight path angle. Corresponding computation models are established. The optimization results of the “Earth-Mars-Earth”, “Earth-Mars-Venus-Earth”, “Earth-Venus-Mars-Earth” free return trajectories show that the three-phase model accurately describes the AGA process and AGA effectively improves the performance of the free return trajectories, with the benefit of the reduced transfer time and fuel consumption.

Key words: Aerogravity assist, Free return trajectory, Dynamic model, Trajectory design