Impulsive Hyperbolic Injection from a Circular Park Orbit

This document is the user’s guide for a Windows compatible Fortran computer program named
hyper_ftn.exe which can be used to determine the characteristics of impulsive maneuvers from a
circular Earth park orbit to a departure hyperbola. The algorithm in this program is based on the
equations derived in Chapter 4 of Richard Battin’s classic text, Astronautical Guidance, and Chapter 11
of An Introduction to the Mathematics and Methods of Astrodynamics, also written by Professor Battin
and published by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA).

The Earth departure trajectory for interplanetary missions is usually defined by a “targeting
specification” which consists of twice the specific (per unit mass) orbital energy C3 , and the right
ascension   and declination   of the outgoing asymptote. These numbers may be supplied by a
spacecraft customer or determined with a patched-conic or more sophisticated trajectory analysis
computer program that solves Lambert’s problem for an interplanetary mission.

The hyper_ftn software determines the orbital elements and state vectors of the park orbit and
departure hyperbola at injection, and the inertial injection delta-v vector and magnitude. This
information can be used as initial guesses for other trajectory simulations.

This computer program assumes that the hyperbolic targets and orbital characteristics are in the same
Earth-centered-inertial (ECI) coordinate system. For example, targeting specs are often provided or
computed in an Earth mean equator and equinox of J2000 coordinate system (EME2000). For this
situation, the state vectors and orbital elements computed by this code will also be with respect to the
EME2000 coordinate system.

Program execution

The hyper_ftn program will interactively prompt the user for the park orbit altitude and orbital
inclination, and the departure hyperbola characteristics. These prompts appear as follows;

please input the altitude of the circular park orbit (kilometers)?

185.2

please input the orbital inclination of the park orbit (degrees)?

(0 <= inclination <= 180)
28.5

please input the C3 of the departure hyperbola [(km/sec)**2]?

(C3 > 0)
9.28

please input the right ascension of the outgoing asymptote (degrees)?

(0 degrees <= right ascension <= 360 degrees)
352.59

please input the declination of the outgoing asymptote (degrees)?

(-90 degrees <= declination <= +90 degrees)
2.27

Please note the proper units and valid data range for each input.

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Program Output

The following is the hyper_ftn program output for this coplanar example.

===================================================
Interplanetary Injection from a Circular Park Orbit
===================================================

departure hyperbola characteristics

-----------------------------------

c3 9.28000000000000 km**2/sec**2

asymptote right ascension 352.590000000000 degrees

asymptote declination 2.27000000000000 degrees

orbital elements and state vector of park orbit at injection - opportunity #1

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

sma (km) eccentricity inclination (deg) argper (deg)

0.6563460000D+04 0.0000000000D+00 0.2850000000D+02 0.0000000000D+00

raan (deg) true anomaly (deg) arglat (deg) period (min)

0.1767767337D+03 0.2507502395D+02 0.2507502395D+02 0.8819805229D+02

rx (km) ry (km) rz (km) rmag (km)

-.6072921967D+04 -.2106409916D+04 0.1327276618D+04 0.6563460000D+04

vx (kps) vy (kps) vz (kps) vmag (kps)

0.2948684716D+01 -.6379019477D+01 0.3368026112D+01 0.7792960344D+01

orbital elements and state vector of hyperbola at injection - opportunity #1

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

sma (km) eccentricity inclination (deg) argper (deg)

-.4295263378D+05 0.1152806928D+01 0.2850000000D+02 0.2507502395D+02

raan (deg) true anomaly (deg) arglat (deg)

0.1767767337D+03 0.3600000000D+03 0.2507502395D+02

rx (km) ry (km) rz (km) rmag (km)

-.6072921967D+04 -.2106409916D+04 0.1327276618D+04 0.6563460000D+04

vx (kps) vy (kps) vz (kps) vmag (kps)

0.4326441938D+01 -.9359582340D+01 0.4941718368D+01 0.1143417954D+02

injection delta-v vector and magnitude - opportunity #1

-------------------------------------------------------

x-component of delta-v 1377.75722282885 meters/second

y-component of delta-v -2980.56286336067 meters/second

z-component of delta-v 1573.69225603764 meters/second

delta-v magnitude 3641.21920024251 meters/second

orbital elements and state vector of park orbit at injection - opportunity #2

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

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 sma (km) eccentricity inclination (deg) argper (deg)
0.6563460000D+04 0.0000000000D+00 0.2850000000D+02 0.0000000000D+00

raan (deg) true anomaly (deg) arglat (deg) period (min)

0.3484032663D+03 0.2145981460D+03 0.2145981460D+03 0.8819805229D+02

rx (km) ry (km) rz (km) rmag (km)

-.5950846005D+04 -.2122286481D+04 -.1778296683D+04 0.6563460000D+04

vx (kps) vy (kps) vz (kps) vmag (kps)

0.3201396630D+01 -.6411885876D+01 -.3060883870D+01 0.7792960344D+01

orbital elements and state vector of hyperbola at injection - opportunity #2

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

sma (km) eccentricity inclination (deg) argper (deg)

-.4295263378D+05 0.1152806928D+01 0.2850000000D+02 0.2145981460D+03

raan (deg) true anomaly (deg) arglat (deg)

0.3484032663D+03 0.3600000000D+03 0.2145981460D+03

rx (km) ry (km) rz (km) rmag (km)

-.5950846005D+04 -.2122286481D+04 -.1778296683D+04 0.6563460000D+04

vx (kps) vy (kps) vz (kps) vmag (kps)

0.4697232148D+01 -.9407805389D+01 -.4491065550D+01 0.1143417954D+02

injection delta-v vector and magnitude - opportunity #2

-------------------------------------------------------

x-component of delta-v 1495.83551840505 meters/second

y-component of delta-v -2995.91951303224 meters/second

z-component of delta-v -1430.18167990129 meters/second

delta-v magnitude 3641.21920024251 meters/second

The following is the program output for the same identical conditions except the declination of the
departure trajectory is 38.5 degrees. This is a non-coplanar orbital transfer.

===================================================
Interplanetary Injection from a Circular Park Orbit
===================================================

departure hyperbola characteristics

-----------------------------------

c3 9.28000000000000 km**2/sec**2

asymptote right ascension 352.590000000000 degrees

asymptote declination 38.5000000000000 degrees

orbital elements and state vector of park orbit at injection

------------------------------------------------------------

sma (km) eccentricity inclination (deg) argper (deg)

0.6563460000D+04 0.0000000000D+00 0.2850000000D+02 0.0000000000D+00

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 raan (deg) true anomaly (deg) arglat (deg) period (min)
0.2625900003D+03 0.3125449088D+03 0.3125449088D+03 0.8819805229D+02

rx (km) ry (km) rz (km) rmag (km)

-.4786492762D+04 -.3852869847D+04 -.2307355229D+04 0.6563460000D+04

vx (kps) vy (kps) vz (kps) vmag (kps)

0.3851654742D+01 -.6290723357D+01 0.2514316273D+01 0.7792960344D+01

orbital elements and state vector of hyperbola at injection

-----------------------------------------------------------

sma (km) eccentricity inclination (deg) argper (deg)

-.4295263378D+05 0.1150428249D+01 0.3973894825D+02 0.3127842842D+03

raan (deg) true anomaly (deg) arglat (deg)

0.2456839863D+03 0.1385560466D+02 0.3266398889D+03

rx (km) ry (km) rz (km) rmag (km)

-.4786492762D+04 -.3852869847D+04 -.2307355229D+04 0.6563460000D+04

vx (kps) vy (kps) vz (kps) vmag (kps)

0.2992807608D+01 -.9546793948D+01 0.5535547831D+01 0.1143417954D+02

hyperbolic injection delta-v vector and magnitude

-------------------------------------------------

delta-vx -858.847133386309 meters/seconds

delta-vx -3256.07059068258 meters/seconds
delta-vx 3021.23155826680 meters/seconds

delta-v magnitude 4524.09706114945 meters/seconds

Technical Discussion

The algorithm implemented in this scientific simulation assumes that the spacecraft is initially in a
circular Earth park orbit. Furthermore, the orbital transfer maneuver is assumed to be impulsive which
implies an instantaneous change in velocity but not change in position. In the following discussion, i is
the orbital inclination of the initial circular Earth park orbit and   is the declination of the outgoing or
departure hyperbola.

Whenever i    , there will be two coplanar opportunities to establish a departure hyperbola that will
satisfy the energy and orientation of the outgoing asymptote. Typically, one injection opportunity will
occur while the spacecraft is ascending and the other while the spacecraft is descending along the park
orbit. For coplanar orbital transfer, the impulse is applied at the perigee of the departure hyperbola.

For the case where    i , there will be a single non-coplanar injection opportunity.

Coplanar Transfer - Orientation of the park orbit and departure hyperbola

This section summarizes the equations used to determine the right ascension of the ascending node
(RAAN) of the park orbit and the injection true anomaly on the park orbit.

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A unit vector is the direction of the departure asymptote is given by

cos   cos   
 
sˆ   cos   sin   
 sin  
  

where
  right ascension of departure asymptote
   declination of departure asymptote

The angle between the outgoing asymptote and the spin axis of the Earth is given by

  cos1  sˆ zˆ 

where zˆ  0 0 1 . Note that   90    .

T

The park orbit right ascension of the ascending node for each opportunity can be determined from

 cot  
1  180     sin 1  
 tan i 

 cot  
 2  360     sin 1  
 tan i 

The true anomaly on the park orbit for each injection opportunity can be determined from

 cos  
1  cos1   
 sin i 

 cos  
 2   cos1   
 sin i 
where

 1 
  sin 1  
 1  rp V  
2

In the last equation, rp is the geocentric radius of the park orbit and  is the gravitational constant of
the Earth. The velocity vector at infinity V is determined from V  C3 .

For a tangential impulsive injection maneuver that occurs at perigee of the hyperbola, the true anomaly
on the hyperbola is zero. Furthermore, since the orbit transfer modeled by this software is coplanar, the
right ascension of the ascending node computed above should be the same for both the park orbit and the

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departure hyperbola. This can be verified by examining the hyperbola’s right ascension of the ascending
node (RAAN) which is computed using the state vector at injection.

Coplanar Transfer - Departure delta-V

The velocity vector at any geocentric position vector r required to achieve a departure hyperbola
defined by V ,  and   is given by
 1   1 
v h   d  V  sˆ   d  V  rˆ
 2   2 

where
 V2
d 
1  cos  rp 4

and  is the angle between the spacecraft’s position vector and the departure asymptote unit vector
which can be computed using
cos  sˆ rˆ

The injection v vector can be determined from the following expression

v  v h  v p

where v p is the inertial velocity vector in the park orbit prior to injection and rˆ  r r .

Finally, the scalar injection delta-v is v  v . The injection delta-v is also given by

 
v  2  V2 
rp rp

Non-coplanar Transfer – Park Orbit Orientation and Departure delta-V

A geocentric unit vector is the direction of the departure asymptote is given by

cos   cos   
ˆi   cos  sin  
  
 sin  
  

where
  right ascension of departure asymptote
   declination of departure asymptote

The velocity vector of the spacecraft on the initial circular orbit is given by

page 6
 ˆ
v0  i
r

The velocity vector at any geocentric position vector r required to achieve a departure hyperbola
defined by v ,  and   is given by
1
v1  v  D  1 ˆi   D  1 ˆi r 
2

where
4
D  1

r v2 1  ˆi ˆi r 
and
cos  cos   sin  sin  cos i 
ˆi  sin  cos   cos  sin  cos i 
r  
 sin  sin i 

  cos  sin   sin  cos  cos i 

ˆi    sin  sin   cos  cos  cos i 
  
 cos  sin i 

In these equations,  is the right ascension of the ascending node, i is the orbital inclination,  is the
true anomaly at injection, r is the geocentric radius of the park orbit and v  C3 .

The injection v vector can be determined from the following expression

v  v1  v0

Finally, the scalar injection delta-v is v  v .

The orientation of the park orbit and departure hyperbola at injection is computed using a two-
dimensional grid search involving the park orbit right ascension of the ascending node (RAAN) and the
true anomaly of the impulsive maneuver on the park orbit. During the grid search, hyper_ftn uses a
nonlinear programming (NLP) algorithm to find the current minimum delta-v and saves the RAAN and
true anomaly values corresponding to the “best” delta-v.

page 7
Algorithm Resources

“Design of Lunar and Interplanetary Ascent Trajectories”, Victor C. Clarke, Jr., JPL Technical Report
No. 32-30, March 15, 1962.

An Introduction to the Mathematics and Methods of Astrodynamics, Richard H. Battin, AIAA Education
Series, 1987.

Analytical Mechanics of Space Systems, Hanspeter Schaub and John L. Junkins, AIAA Education
Series, 2003.

Spacecraft Mission Design, Charles D. Brown, AIAA Education Series, 1992.

Orbital Mechanics, Vladimir A. Chobotov, AIAA Education Series, 2002.

“A Computer Simulation of the Orbital Launch Window Problem”, Archie C. Young and Pat R. Odom,
AIAA 67-615, 1967.

“Launch Parameters for Interplanetary Flights”, W. C. Riddell, American Rocket Society Journal,
December 1960.

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