| Description |
vii, 72 leaves : illustrations ; 28 cm |
| Summary |
"To find definite answers for the presence of water on the poles of Moon, to facilitate selection of future lunar landing sites and aid in construction of architectural bases, to assist proper lunar resource utilization and to improve lunar gravity models there is a great interest and need for highly accurate, reliable and efficient lunar surface mapping and communication. This thesis is intended to aid in proper selection of orbits for future lunar missions by demonstrating the impact of using electric propulsion on the search space of feasible and useful lunar orbits. The requirements for future lunar mapping and communication are studied and possible options to meet them are investigated. Based on coverage analysis, a constellation of three satellites in high altitude, circular and polar geo-synchronous orbit is proposed to provide an improved lunar communications architecture compared to those previously recommended in literature. Low altitude, circular and polar Sun-synchronous orbits are found to be the best candidate to meet future lunar mapping needs. The feasibility of using electric propulsion for stationkeeping and providing the orbit plane rotation required by these lunar mapping and communication options is determined"--Abstract, leaf iii. |
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