Basics of Space Flight Dave Doody August 11, 2011 ii Cover illustrations: The background is an infrared view, at 3.6 and 4.5 microns wavelength, of a colony of hot, young stars in the Orion nebula, from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope. Arbitrary colors represent the invisible infrared wavelengths. Image (PIA-13005) courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech. The rocket is a Titan IVB/Centaur carrying the Cassini Saturn orbiter and its at- tached Huygens Titan probe. Launch occurred at 4:43 a.m. EDT October 15, 1997, from Cape Canaveral Air Station. Image (PIA-01050) courtesy NASA/JPL/KSC. Inserts to the lower left of rocket: Leftmost is a view of the Sun using data from the Solar & Heliospheric Observatory spacecraft, displayed by the JHelioviewer visu- alization software (www.jhelioviewer.org). Center image combines Magellan radar imaging and altimetry data in a view of volcanoes “Innini” and “Hathor” in the southern hemisphere of Venus. From image (P-42385) courtesy of the Magellan Science Team at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory Multimission Image Processing Laboratory. Rightmost: NASA/JPL 70-meter Deep Space Station at Goldstone, California. View looking toward the northeast. Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech. Basics of Space Flight JPL Clearance #11-1594 Prepared with LATEX from public-domain content at www.jpl.nasa.gov/basics. Subject content is in the public domain and may be copied without permission. Please acknowledge source as the above website when copying. Cover design by David Hinkle, JPL, copyright © 2011 California Institute of Technology; all rights reserved. Preface and index copyright © 2011 Dave Doody; all rights reserved. The work was carried out at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Adminis- tration. This free-downloadable PDF is available at the above URL. Paperback hardcopy version is available where books are sold: ISBN-13: 978-0615476018 ISBN-10: 0615476015 Contents Preface: About this PDF 1 Acknowledgements 3 Introduction 5 IENVIRONMENT 7 1 The Solar System 9 2 Reference Systems 41 3 Gravitation and Mechanics 57 4 Interplanetary Trajectories 71 5 Planetary Orbits 79 6 Electromagnetic Phenomena 85 II FLIGHT PROJECTS 103 7 Mission Inception Overview 105 8 Experiments 113 9 Spacecraft Classification 123 iii 10 Telecommunications 139 11 Typical Onboard Systems 153 12 Typical Science Instruments 183 13 Spacecraft Navigation 197 III FLIGHT OPERATIONS 205 14 Launch Phase 207 15 Cruise Phase 221 16 Encounter Phase 229 17 Extended Operations Phase 243 18 Deep Space Network 249 IV REFERENCE 263 Units of Measure 265 Glossary 269 Index 287 List of Figures 1.1 GeocentricSystemofTychoBrahe . 9 1.2 Galaxy M100 . 12 1.3 TheSuninEUV......................... 15 1.4 HeliopauseandBowshock. 20 1.5 L.L.OrionisBowshock(HST) . 21 iv LIST OF FIGURES v 1.6 VanAllenBelts ......................... 24 1.7 TerrestrialPlanetDistances. 26 1.8 Jupiter’s Volcanic Moon Io . 28 1.9 Saturn’s Moon Titan . 28 1.10 Geysers on Saturn’s Moon Enceladus . 29 1.11 Saturn’s Rings . 29 1.13 CrescentPhase ......................... 30 1.12 Jovian Planet Distances . 31 1.14 Conjunctions, Elongations, Opposition . 32 1.15 Asteroid 433 Eros . 33 1.16 Main Belt Asteroids . 34 1.17 Comet Capture and Orbit . 37 1.18 Components of a Comet . 38 1.19 1966 Leonid Meteors . 39 2.1 Longitude and Latitude . 41 2.2 TerrestrialCo¨ordinatesGrid. 42 2.3 Precession of Earth’s Axis Over 26,000 Years . 44 2.4 Movement of Earth’s Rotational Poles 2001 to 2006 . 45 2.5 TheCelestialSphere....................... 47 2.6 TheEclipticPlane........................ 47 2.7 DSN Station with HA-DEC Mount . 49 2.8 DSN Station with AZ-EL Mount . 49 2.9 DSN Station with X-Y Mount . 50 2.10 TRM + RTLT = ERT . 52 2.11 SOEExcerpt........................... 55 3.1 EllipseFoci ........................... 57 3.2 WaterBottleRocket ...................... 60 3.3 Schematic of Bipropellant Rocket . 61 3.4 DeLavalNozzle ......................... 62 3.5 AlbertandElsaEinstein..................... 63 3.6 Motion and Acceleration in Orbit . 64 3.7 Kepler’sSecondLaw ...................... 65 3.8 Cannon Atop Mountain . 66 3.9 AddingEnergy.......................... 67 3.10 Orbital Energy . 67 4.1 Earth to Mars via Least Energy Orbit . 72 4.2 EarthtoVenusviaLeastEnergyOrbit . 73 vi LIST OF FIGURES 4.3 Voyager Flight Path . 74 4.4 Voyager2Gravity-AssistVelocity . 75 4.5 Planet-RelativeSpeeds . 76 4.6 Sun-RelativeSpeeds....................... 76 4.7 DeepSpaceOne......................... 77 5.1 Lagrange Points . 83 6.1 The Galaxy M45 . 85 6.2 Radio Image of Jupiter . 88 6.3 DarkAbsorptionLinesintheSun’sSpectrum . 92 6.4 Hydrogen-Alpha Solar Absorption . 94 6.5 Relative Radial Motion & Doppler Shift . 95 6.6 DifferencedDoppler ....................... 95 6.7 Reflectance Angle of RF Waves . 96 6.8 CassegrainReflector....................... 97 6.9 NestedGlancing-IncidenceMirrors . 98 6.10 Refraction . 99 6.11 Refraction in Earth’s Atmosphere . 100 6.12 Wave Phases . 100 7.1 Full Mission Life Cycle . 107 7.2 Galileo in Environmental Test . 109 7.3 Spacecraft Right Ascension . 111 8.1 Steve Squyres Waiting for Rover Egress . 113 8.2 Radio Science Atmospheric Occultation Experiment . 118 8.3 LunarGravityFieldSurvey . 119 9.1 Voyager . 124 9.2 Galileo..............................125 9.3 Huygens . 126 9.4 Pathfinder ............................127 9.5 DeepSpace2 ..........................127 9.6 Sojourner . 128 9.7 Spitzer..............................128 9.8 Tracking&DataRelaySatelliteSystem . 129 10.1 DSN Hydrogen Maser . 142 10.2 1-Way, 2-Way Coherent, 2-Way and 3-Way Coherent. 143 10.3 Deep Space 1 Beacon . 148 LIST OF FIGURES vii 11.3 Stardust Spacecraft Bus . 154 11.1 Cassini Spacecraft –Y side . 155 11.2 Cassini Spacecraft +Y side . 156 11.4 Excerpt from Cassini SOE . 158 11.5 Cassini CDS . 158 11.6 Cassini CDS . 160 11.7 3-Axis Stabilized Cassini . 161 11.8 CassiniStellarReferenceUnit. 163 11.9 Ulysses Prime-focus HGA . 165 11.10 MGS Articulated HGA . 165 11.11 LGA Atop HGA . 166 11.12 Travelling-Wave Tube Amplifier . 167 11.13 Solar Cell . 169 11.14 MGS Solar Arrays . 169 11.15 Cutaway view of Cassini’s RTGs . 171 11.16 Cassini’s RTG Shades . 171 11.17 Messenger’s OSRs . 173 11.18 Thermal Control Louvers . 174 11.19 Stardust with Shields . 175 11.20 Magellan Rocket Engine Module . 175 11.21 Cassini’s Propulsion Module Subsystem . 176 11.22 Magellan Flight System Block Diagram . 178 11.23 Solar Sail . 179 12.1 Galileo Heavy Ion Counter. 184 12.2 APXS on Sojourner Rover. 185 12.3 CRS on Voyager. 185 12.4 CAPS on Cassini. 186 12.5 CDA on Cassini. 186 12.6 Voyager’s MAG Boom . 187 12.7 CCD Imaging System . 188 12.8 Detail of a CCD Detector. 189 12.9 PPR on Galileo. 192 12.10 Synthetic Aperture Radar . 194 12.11 MOLA on Mars Global Surveyor. 195 14.1 Centaur Upper Stage . 208 14.2 Delta II Launch Vehicle . 209 14.3 Titan IV Launch Vehicle . 209 14.4 Atlas V Launch Vehicle . 210 14.5 Ariane V Launch Vehicle . 211 14.6 Proton Launch Vehicle . 211 14.7 Soyuz Launch Vehicle . 211 14.8 Space Shuttle Atlantis . 212 14.9 Pegasus Launch Vehicle . 212 14.10 Launch Complex 41 . 213 14.11 Making use of Earth’s Motion . 214 14.12 Cassini-Huygens to Launch Vehicle Adapter . 216 14.13 MRO Hoisted to Atlas V . 218 15.1 Messenger . 221 15.2 CassiniAcesDuringEarlyCruise . 223 15.3 Creating Products for Use in Flight Ops . 225 15.4 Station 14 Pointing its 70 m Aperture East . 226 16.1 Planetary Flyby . 230 16.2 Orbit Insertion . 232 16.3 Stellar Ring Occultation . 234 16.4 Venus Gravity Field vs. Topography . 236 16.5 Galileo’s Jupiter Atmospheric Probe. 237 16.6 Magellan’s Atmospheric Plunge. 237 16.7 JPL’s Surveyor 3 on the Moon. 238 16.8 Stardust . 240 17.1 Gaps in Magellan’s Venus Data . 243 17.2 Pioneer 10 and 11 . 246 18.1 34 m Deep Space Stations . 249 18.2 70 m Deep Space Station 43 in Canberra . 254 18.3 34 m Deep Space Station 15 in California . 255 18.4 Microwave Mirrors in Beam Waveguide DSS . 256 18.5 Intercontinental DSN Array . 257 18.6 The BWG Microwave System . 258 18.7 The SPC Signal and Data Paths . 260 viii LIST OF TABLES ix List of Tables 1.1 Approximate Typical Conditions Within Our Galaxy . 13 1.2 LighttimeandDistance...................... 14 1.3 SolarSystemTemperatureReference . ..