Automated Inclusion of V-Infinity Leveraging Maneuvers in Gravity-Assist Flyby Tour Design

Interplanetary and moon tour missions have benefited from the implementation of leveraging maneuvers that efficiently change spacecraft energy relative to a flyby body. In the current work, these v-infinity leveraging maneuvers are re-formulated into a boundary value problem more suitable for broad trajectory searches and for the ephemeris case by using the same boundary conditions as the Lambert problem. A root-solve on a complicated one-dimensional function results from this reformulation. The method allows the inclusion of maneuvers in broad tour design searches using only a few integer parameter additions to the search space, while also keeping the Lambert-based architecture. Unlike exist-ing v-infinity leveraging implementations, the new approach easily incorporates flyby bodies in non-circular or ephemeris model orbits. Furthermore, the ap-proach enables leveraging maneuvers between two different flyby bodies. The well-known bi-elliptic transfers are shown to be special cases of interbody lev-eraging. Examples of the new formulation’s utility are also presented using rep-resentative interplanetary and intermoon transfers