Eclipse-Conscious Transfer to Lunar Gateway Using Ephemeris-Driven Terminal Coast Arcs

A novel methodology is proposed for designing low-thrust trajectories to quasi-periodic, near-rectilinear Halo orbits that leverages ephemeris-driven, “invariant manifold analogs” as long-duration asymptotic terminal coast arcs. The proposed methodology generates end-to-end, eclipse-conscious, fuel-optimal transfers in an ephemeris model using an indirect formulation of optimal control theory. The end-to-end trajectories are achieved by patching Earth-escape spirals to a judiciously chosen set of states on precomputed manifolds. The results elucidate the efficacy of employing such a hybrid optimization algorithm for solving end-to-end analogous fuel-optimal problems using indirect methods and leveraging a composite smooth control construct. Multiple representative cargo resupply trajectories are generated for the Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway. A novel process is introduced to incorporate eclipse-induced coast arcs and their impact within optimization. The results quantify accurate costs required for achieving efficient eclipse-conscious transfers for several launch opportunities in 2025 and are anticipated to find applications for analogous uncrewed missions.