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Long-Term Dynamics and Special Solutions of Lunar Orbiters

Abstract

New transportation, communication, and logistic infrastructures are being planned and developed for cislunar space in the Earth-Moon system. Cislunar trajectories encompass all of the orbits revolving around the Earth (circumterrestrial) and Moon (circumlunar), as well as those about the Earth-Moon Lagrange point (libration-point orbits) and the various paths between the Earth and Moon (trans-lunar trajectories and transfers). The scope herein is limited to the circumlunar class of orbits, thereby omitting discussions on near-Earth trajectories from low-Earth orbits to the geosynchronous regime, as well as lunar transfers and libration-point orbits. This thesis investigates the long-term dynamics of lunar orbiters, with a particular emphases on special solutions (e.g., frozen and resonant orbits) that have been uncovered in the literature. NASA's General Mission Analysis Tool (\texttt{GMAT}) is used to provide high-fidelity orbit integrations and dynamical maps, which serve to validate previous analytical and semi-analytical results as well as explore more completely the neighboring phase space.

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