Here we describe the mission design for SMART-2/LISA Pathfinder. The best trade-off between the requirements of a low-disturbance environment and communications distance is found to be a free-insertion Lissajous orbit around the first co-linear Lagrange point of the Sun-Earth system (L 1), 1.5 × 10 6 km from Earth. In order to transfer SMART-2/LISA Pathfinder from a low Earth orbit, where it wi...

The Cheap Auroral Tomographical System (CATS) consists of a large constellation of small, disposable satellites in a near polar orbit. CATS is designed to collect stereoscopic views of the earth environment that will be used for tomographical and earth environmental research. Each satellite will be identical and constructed of high-grade commercial parts. thus significantly reducing the cost of...

For a hypothetical planet on a highly eccentric orbit, we have calculated the osculating orbital parameters and its closest approaches to Earth and Moon over a period of 750 kyr. The approaches which are close enough to influence the climate of the Earth form a pattern comparable to that of the past climatic changes, as recorded in deep sea sediments and polar ice cores.

In the present paper, an analytical approach is used to study the thermal deflections of a simply supported composite plate with a beam-like stiffener. The results for a plate–beam system exposed to a sinusoidal thermal load is used to study the effects of the low Earth orbit (LEO) thermal conditions on the composite plates, which have been used in the structure of satellites and spacecraft. To...

This paper critically reviews the state of the art of an approach to supply energy to earth from space mirrors that would be placed in orbit with angle control to reflect solar radiation to specific sites on earth for illumination, and also presents our (i) optical and mechanical tests to examine the property changes at a cryogenic temperature of thin film mirror that we manufactured, (ii) econ...

Google Earth is becoming a popular browser for online geographic-related data and information. It integrates satellite imagery, aerial photography, digital map data, and social-economic data to make a virtual three dimensional interactive template of our living planate. The Keyhole Markup Language, promoted by Google Inc., offers easy and convenient interfaces for people publishing, sharing and...

The invariant manifolds of libration point orbits (LPOs) in the Sun-Earth/Moon system are used to construct lowenergy transfers from Low Earth Orbits (LEOs) to geosynchronous orbits. A maneuver is performed in LEO to insert onto a stable manifold trajectory of an LPO. The spacecraft travels to the host LPO and then follows an unstable manifold trajectory back to a geosynchronous orbit, where an...

The surprising discovery of giant planets in inner orbits around solar-like stars has brought into question our understanding of the development and evolution of planetary systems, including our solar system. To make further progress, it is critical to detect and obtain data on the frequency and characteristics of Earth-class planets. The Kepler Mission is designed to be a quick, low-cost appro...

Many asteroids and comets orbit the inner solar system; among them Near Earth Objects (NEOs) are those celestial bodies for which the orbit lies close, and sometimes crosses, the Earth’s orbit. Over the last decades the impact hazard they pose to the Earth has generated heated discussions on the required measures to react to such a scenario. The aim of the research presented in this dissertatio...