Chinese Space Science and Technology ›› 2024, Vol. 44 ›› Issue (3): 15-29.doi: 10.16708/j.cnki.1000-758X.2024.0035

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Orbit design method of near-lunar space constellation

CHEN Shiyu,NI Yanshuo,PENG Jing   

  1. Beijing Institute of Spacecraft System Engineering,Beijing 100094,China
  • Published:2024-06-25 Online:2024-06-05

Abstract:  According to the requirements of relay communication and lunar navigation for future lunar exploration missions,an orbit design method of near-moon space constellation is proposed.First,the indexes of constellation design in relay communication,lunar navigation,cost for deployment and maintenance are sorted out,and analytic hierarchy process is applied to determine the weights of the indexes so that a comprehensive evaluation index can be proposed.The properties of various types of orbits are analyzed with full consideration of orbit resources near the moon,and the orbit types suitable for constellation deployment are initially screened.A construction route of the near-moon space constellation is proposed,where 100% quadruple cover for the whole moon is gradually realized in three stages.The constellation configurations in the three stages are designed successively.For each stage,different configurations are compared and the one with the best comprehensive evaluation index is selected.Based on the above method,the construction scheme of the constellation in near-moon space is obtained.In the first stage,2 satellites are deployed in elliptical lunar frozen orbit(ELFO)to provide full-time earth relay communication for the south pole region of the moon.In the second stage,6 ELFO satellites,2 near rectilinear halo orbit(NRHO)satellites,and 1 L2 halo orbit satellite are deployed to provide full-time navigation for the south pole region and fulltime earth communication for the entire lunar surface.In the third stage,4 ELFO satellites,2 NRHO satellites,1 L1 halo orbit satellite,and 3 distant retrograde orbit satellites are deployed to provide full-time navigation for the entire lunar surface.For any position in the whole lunar surface,the geometric dilution of precision of the designed constellation keeps below 5 in at least 72% of the time,leading to a long-term high-precision navigation for the whole lunar surface.Compared with the existing literature,the proposed design method of the near-lunar space constellation considers more orbit types,more comprehensive constellation performance indexes,and innovatively puts forward a phased construction scheme of the near-lunar space constellation.

Key words: near-lunar space, communication, navigation, orbit design, constellation configuration