Tricoche Xavier, Schlei Wayne, Howell Kathleen C
IEEE Trans Vis Comput Graph. 2021 Feb;27(2):765-774. doi: 10.1109/TVCG.2020.3030402. Epub 2021 Jan 28.
Mission designers must study many dynamical models to plan a low-cost spacecraft trajectory that satisfies mission constraints. They routinely use Poincare maps to search for a suitable path through the interconnected web of periodic orbits and invariant manifolds found in multi-body gravitational systems. This paper is concerned with the extraction and interactive visual exploration of this structural landscape to assist spacecraft trajectory planning. We propose algorithmic solutions that address the specific challenges posed by the characterization of the topology in astrodynamics problems and allow for an effective visual analysis of the resulting information. This visualization framework is applied to the circular restricted three-body problem (CR3BP), where it reveals novel periodic orbits with their relevant invariant manifolds in a suitable format for interactive transfer selection. Representative design problems illustrate how spacecraft path planners can leverage our topology visualization to fully exploit the natural dynamics pathways for energy-efficient trajectory designs.
任务设计者必须研究许多动力学模型，以规划出满足任务约束条件的低成本航天器轨道。他们通常使用庞加莱映射来寻找一条合适的路径，穿越多体引力系统中相互连接的周期轨道和不变流形网络。本文关注的是对这种结构景观的提取和交互式可视化探索，以辅助航天器轨道规划。我们提出了算法解决方案，以应对天体动力学问题中拓扑特征所带来的特定挑战，并能对所得信息进行有效的可视化分析。这个可视化框架应用于圆形限制性三体问题（CR3BP），它以适合交互式转移选择的格式揭示了新的周期轨道及其相关的不变流形。代表性的设计问题说明了航天器路径规划者如何利用我们的拓扑可视化来充分利用自然动力学路径，以进行节能轨道设计。
