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Projecte llegit

Títol: Analysis of mission design optimal trajectories for Solar System exploration

Estudiants que han llegit aquest projecte:

Director/a: DE LA TORRE SANGRÀ, DAVID

Departament: FIS

Títol: Analysis of mission design optimal trajectories for Solar System exploration

Data inici oferta: 20-12-2025     Data finalització oferta: 20-07-2026


Estudis d'assignació del projecte:
    GR ENG SIST AEROESP
Tipus: Individual
 
Lloc de realització: EETAC
 
Paraules clau:
Astrodynamics, Mission Design, Optimisation, Python
 
Descripció del contingut i pla d'activitats:
Main objective: generate and analyse delta-v maps (pork-chop plots) for deep-space missions.
Sub-ojectives and general tasks:
- Build an astrodynamics toolbox: two-body Keplerian orbital mechanics.
- The toolbox will be converted from an existing MATLAB version to a Python3 codebase.
- Extensive V&V (verification and validation) work must be done in the Python version.
- Generate PCP maps for selected missions of interest (historical, current or future).
- Explore mission design options via the PCP maps.
 
Overview (resum en anglès):
This bachelor's thesis aims to create a Python software environment dedicated to astrodynamics and the study of interplanetary trajectories. The purpose is to provide space mission analysis with a set of numerical tools capable of evaluating launch windows and direct transfers.

The document begins by describing the essential physical and mathematical fundamentals, such as Lambert's problem and orbital state conversion, which serve as the foundation of the code. Next, the modular architecture developed is detailed, based on an audit of a legacy MATLAB codebase provided by the project supervisor, which has been migrated, modularized, and optimized for the Python ecosystem. This process culminates in the design of a graphical tool for the generation of energy contour maps (Porkchop Plots), which allows for a visual evaluation of the energetic cost of various orbital geometries.

To ensure the reliability of the obtained solutions, a software verification phase has been executed using unit tests. This section analyzes the code function by function, evaluating mathematical limits, error handling, and the numerical consistency of the algorithms. This verification includes solving analytical cases extracted from academic textbooks, achieving an acceptable degree of confidence for the scope of the project, and establishing its computational error margins.

Finally, the tool undergoes practical validation by contrasting its results with official ephemerides and real data from specific missions to evaluate its geometric and energetic accuracy. Once validated, an analytical study is carried out on a library of historical missions. This final discussion compares the historical launch dates and energy costs executed by space agencies with the theoretical optimums predicted by the software, exploring the possible operational constraints that could have motivated these deviations in the original design. Additionally, lines of improvement are discussed to increase the scope of the missions and the analysis of the results.

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