McKevitt, James; Beegadhur, Shayne; Bulla, Sophie; Patadia, Dhrumil; Finn, Joshua; (2023) Development of a kick stage and trajectory optimisation for large interplanetary scientific missions. Journal of the British Interplanetary Society (JBIS) , 76 (12) pp. 406-416. 10.59332/jbis-076-12-0406.

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Abstract

With SpaceX’s Starship heralding an era of high-capacity launch vehicles, large-scale scientific missions like the proposed Arcanum mission to Neptune are now feasible. However, traditional methods for initially estimating fuel masses, like the impulsive burn approximation, are wholly inadequate and cannot be used to create realistic initial design concepts. This paper provides an in-depth analysis using the General Mission Analysis Tool (GMAT) to assess the Oberth effect and various Earth Departure Stage (EDS) designs, exploring propulsion technologies from hypergolic to cryogenic. We consider factors like fuel boil-off and the implications of using Starship as a launch vehicle for delivery into parking orbits which can then be used for deep space trajectories. Our findings, including a performance comparison of different EDS designs and heuristic tips for optimising large-mass ejections, are valuable for mission planners. The study also demonstrates GMAT’s utility in combination with MATLAB in simulating realistic mission profiles. These results not only advance the Arcanum mission but also contribute broadly to deep space mission strategies.

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