Launch Opportunities and Preliminary Orbit Design for Next Mars Exploration Program - J-Stage

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Launch Opportunities and Preliminary Orbit Design for Next Mars Exploration Program - J-Stage
Trans. JSASS Aerospace Tech. Japan
Vol. 10, No. ists28, pp. Tk_19-Tk_25, 2012

Topics

                           Launch Opportunities and Preliminary Orbit Design
                                  for Next Mars Exploration Program

       By Naoko Ogawa1) , Michihiro Matsumoto2) , Nobuaki Ishii2) , Yuichi Tsuda1,2) , Yasuhiro Kawakatsu1,2) ,
     Jun’ichiro Kawaguchi1,2) , Takeshi Imamura2) , Ayako Matsuoka2) , Takashi Kubota1,2) and Takehiko Satoh1,2)
                               1) JAXA Space Exploration Center, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, Sagamihara, Japan
                         2) Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, Sagamihara, Japan

                                                             (Received June 27th, 2011)

              Since 2008, a new plan for next Mars exploration program has been proposed and discussed by scientists and
         engineers in Japan. This exploration program is named MELOS, or Mars Exploration with Lander and Orbiter
         Synergy, a long-awaited program in the planetary science community in Japan after unsuccessful end of Nozomi
         Mars orbiter and ongoing challenge of Akatsuki Venus orbiter. The goal of the whole program is to understand
         Mars as a system, by elucidation of Martian climate, atmospheric escape, internal structure, surface environment
         and interaction by them. A series of missions has been planned, and several spacecraft including orbiters and
         landers are under discussion to be launched in early 2020’s. In this paper, we investigate launch opportunities
         during early 2020’s and estimate the payload mass in each case. Feasible interplanetary transfer trajectories from
         Earth to Mars are proposed. Preliminary design of insertion sequence into the Mars orbit and some orbit candidates
         derived from mission requirements are also shown together with numerical simulation results.

                                             Key Words: Mars, Mission Analysis, Orbit Design, MELOS

1.   Introduction                                                              improved by Akatsuki at Venus2) and by MELOS1 at Mars. In
                                                                               this proposal, a meteorology orbiter will be inserted into the
   Since 2008, scientists and engineers in Japan have discussed                Mars orbit. Another is to study escaping atmosphere that is
the next Mars exploration program named MELOS, an acronym                      thought to be a key process for today’s tenuous atmosphere
for “Mars Exploration with Lander-Orbiter Synergy”1) . As its                  of Mars. Researchers propose “2-orbiter” configuration for
name indicates, this is a programmatic series of several ambi-                 escaping atmosphere so that in-situ measurements and global
tious missions composed of landers and orbiters. Combined                      views will be acquired simultaneously. We describe possible
and networked exploration by multiple spacecraft is one of no-                 orbit sequences for the meteorology orbiter configuration and
table features of the MELOS series. A working group for the                    2-orbiter configuration in Sections 4. and 5., respectively.
MELOS has been established in 2008, and more than 100 re-
searchers have joined discussing the details of the first mission              3.   Launch Opportunities
toward the launch in early 2020’s.
   This paper describes the preliminary mission analysis and                      Table 1 shows launch opportunities to Mars from 2019 and
orbit design for the MELOS mission series. Possible mission                    2024. In one case, for example, the spacecraft will depart Earth
plans to realize required configuration by a single launch and                 in July 2020 and arrive to Mars in February 2021, after about
simple simulation results are reported.                                        a half rotation around Sun. Vinf means the hyperbolic excess
                                                                               speed from the outgoing hyperbola from Earth or the incoming
2.   Overview                                                                  hyperbola to Mars, which corresponds to the velocity difference
                                                                               between the planet and transfer orbit. It is noteworthy that
   In this section, overview and scientific basis of the MELOS                 launch opportunities around early 2020’s require substantially
series are introduced.                                                         high velocity to escape from Earth and to approach Mars. It
   The first mission called MELOS1 is planned to be launched                   means that the total mass which can be delivered to the Mars
around early 2020’s, which will be an “orbiter primary” mission                orbit is not so large. Some transfer orbits require more than one
with one or more orbiters and a small lander as a precursor                    rotations around Sun. The table also includes the approximate
to demonstrate entry, descent and landing (EDL). A larger                      estimation of the maximum dry mass that can be delivered by
MELOS2 mission with a well-equipped lander will follow and                     an H-IIA 202 or 204 vehicle into the Mars transfer orbit (MTO)
enhance our understanding about Mars.                                          or into the Mars orbit, where the final orbit is assumed to be
   There are two proposals for the orbiter part of MELOS1. One                 300 km × 10 RM and RM is the Mars radius. Note that the dry
is to complement the comparative meteorology of terrestrial                    mass includes lander’s propellant for descent. Among the H-
planets. Our knowledge of Earth meteorology will be greatly                    IIA series, 202 is the basic type with two solid rocket boosters

                                                                           1
Copyright© 2012 by the Japan Society for Aeronautical and Space Sciences and ISTS. All rights reserved.

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Launch Opportunities and Preliminary Orbit Design for Next Mars Exploration Program - J-Stage
Trans. JSASS Aerospace Tech. Japan Vol. 10, No. ists28 (2012)

                                               Table 1. Launch opportunities to Mars during early 2020’s.
          Launch         Arrival        Departure Vinf        Arrival Vinf        Dry mass in MTO [ton]         Dry mass in Mars orbit [ton]
                                        [km/s]                [km/s]              H-IIA 202 H-IIA 204           H-IIA 202 H-IIA 204
          Nov. 2019      Feb. 2022      3.00                  2.70                2.0           3.3             1.4            2.4
          Jul. 2020      Feb. 2021      3.70                  2.62                1.7           2.9             1.2            2.1
          Nov. 2021      Jan. 2024      3.01                  2.98                2.0           3.3             1.3            2.2
          Sep. 2022      Aug. 2023      3.83                  2.64                1.6           2.8             1.1            2.0
          Dec. 2023      Jan. 2026      3.12                  3.31                2.0           3.1             1.3            2.0
          Oct. 2024      Aug. 2025      3.36                  2.45                1.9           3.1             1.4            2.3

(SRB), while 204 has an enhanced launch capability by adding                      and declination of the outgoing asymptote are 12.5 degrees and
two more SRBs.                                                                    26.2 degrees, respectively. A small burn of TCM-1 (Trajectory
                                                                                  Correction Maneuver 1) is performed 15 days after the launch.
4.     Preliminary Orbit Design for Meteorology Orbiter                           After the six-month cruise, TCM-2 is planned 15 days before
                                                                                  arriving Mars. The spacecraft approaches Mars with a B-
  Preliminary orbital elements for the meteorology orbiter are                    parameter of 7,751 km and a phase angle of 63.32 degrees.
shown in Table 2. The orbit is elliptic in order to observe the                   Finally on 16th February 2021, the OME (Orbit Maneuver
whole Mars globe from its apoapsis. In this paper we set its                      Engine) of the spacecraft burns with an 898-m/s delta-V at a
inclination to be 63.4 degrees so that the argument of periapsis                  300-km altitude of Mars to inject itself into the orbit as shown
be kept constant, but this value is tentative.                                    in Fig. 3.

     Table 2. Preliminary orbital elements of the meteorology orbiter.
                                                                                                                       16 Feb.. 2021
               Elements                    Values
               Periapsis altitude [km]     300
               Apoapsis altitude [km]      30,564 (9 RM )
               Inclination [deg]           63.4 (TBD)

4.1. Transfer to Mars
   In this paper, we assume the launch year to be 2020.
A possible mission sequence from the launch to Mars orbit
insertion (MOI) can be designed as follows. Simulation was
performed by using an aerospace mission analysis software
STK 9 and its trajectory design module Astrogator (Analytical
Graphics, Inc.). Note that the sequence is not optimized. Table
3 shows the overall sequence.                                                                                                  25 Jul. 2020

 Table 3. A possible mission sequence for the meteorology orbiter.
      Dates               Events                      Notes
      25 Jul. 2020        Launch from Tane-           40.8-min coast                     Fig. 1. Mars transfer orbit for the meteorology orbiter.
      21:41:40 UTC        gashima
      25 Jul. 2020        Insertion into Mars         3.81 km/s
      22:29:16 UTC        Transfer Orbit                                          4.2. Mars orbit
                                                                                     Figure 4 and 5 show transition of orbital elements for the
      9 Aug. 2020         TCM-1 (optional)            62.4 m/s
                                                                                  meteorology orbiter after MOI, computed by STK/Astrogator
      22:29:16 UTC
                                                                                  considering Mars gravity field coefficients up to 80th degrees
      1 Feb. 2021         TCM-2 (optional)            1.1 m/s
                                                                                  in Goddard Mars Model 2B3) , the spherical solar radiation
      06:26:11 UTC
                                                                                  pressure model4) , and a simple exponential Mars air drag model,
      16 Feb. 2021        MOI at 300 km peri-         898 m/s
                                                                                  where we set the solar radiation pressure coefficient Cr to be
      04:20:46 UTC        apsis
                                                                                  1, the atmospheric drag coefficient Cd to be 2.2, the spacecraft
                                                                                  mass to be 500 kg, its area to be 20 m2 , the reference air density
  A heliocentric view of the Mars transfer orbit for the
                                                                                  to be 2 × 107 kg/km3 and the scale altitude to be 11.1 km, as
meteorology orbiter is shown in Fig. 1. On 25th July 2020, the
                                                                                  preliminary values. It is indicated that the orbit is stable and
spacecraft will be launched from Tanegashima Space Center,
                                                                                  deviation of orbital elements is sufficiently small for at least one
Japan. After 41-minute coasting at the 300-km altitude, the
                                                                                  martian year.
craft is injected into the outgoing transfer orbit toward Mars
by a 3.81-km/s delta-V, as shown in Fig. 2. Right ascension

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                                                                                                                            63.90

                                                                                                                            63.85
                                                                                                                                                      63.45
                                                                          Escaping Orbit                                    63.80

                                                                                                                            63.75

                                                                                                                            63.70 63.40

                         Launch                                                                                             63.65                           Feb 15      Mar 1          Mar 15          Apr 1

                                                                                                                            63.60

                                                                                                                            63.55

            Coasting                                                                                                        63.50

                                                                                                                            63.45

                                                                                                                            63.40
                                                                                                                                                                Apr             Jul              Oct             Jan 2022        Apr                Jul            Oct      Jan 2023
                                                                                                                                                     2021                                                          (UTCG)

                                                                                                                                                      Inclination (deg)
                                                                                    Kick Burn
                                                                                                                             Fig. 5. Transition of the inclination of the meteorology orbiter.

                                                                                                                        4.3. Option: insertion into areostationary orbit (ASO)
                                                                                                                           There are many suitable orbits for effective observation of the
                                                                                                                        Martian climate. One potential candidate is the aerostationary
Fig. 2. Launch, coasting and injection of the meteorology orbiter into
                                                                                                                        orbit (ASO). Like a geostationary orbit, ASO keeps its nadir
the Mars transfer orbit.
                                                                                                                        on the fixed surface point about 17,000-km below within the
                                                                                                                        Mars equatorial plane by synchronizing its rotation with Mars
                                                                                                                        revolution. While ASO is useful for observation of climates on
                                                                                                                        fixed points, it is relatively difficult to transfer to ASO from
                                                                                                                        an interplanetary hyperbola, because its radius is large and
                                                                                                                        the spacecraft cannot benefit from Mars gravity sufficiently for
                                                                                                                        deceleration. In this paper we would like to discuss insertion
                                                                                      Inserted Orbit
                                                                                                                        into ASO as an optional study.
                                                                                                                           In transfers from a hyperbola into a circular orbit, a 2-
                                                                                                                        or 3-impulse transfer is sometimes more efficient than direct
                                                                                                                        insertion by a single impulse5, 6) . Assuming the arrival Vinf to be
                                                                                                                        2.62 km/s for example, a 2-impulse transfer requires less delta-
                                                                                                                        V when Vinf is larger than the escape velocity Vesc for the ASO,
                                                                                                                        which is 2,046 m/s, as shown in both Fig. 6 and Ref. 5. Fig. 7
                                                                                                                        and Ref. 5 also indicate that a 3-impulse transfer requires much
                                                                                                                        less delta-V when the intermediate apoapsis is larger than the
                     Incoming Orbit                                                 Insertion                           ASO radius.
                                                                                    Burn
                                                                                                                                            1000
                                                                                                                                                                                                                        0.88
                                                                                                                                                                 0.98

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             0.86

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     0.84
                                                                                                                                                                                              0.92
                                                                                                                                                                                 0.94

                                                                                                                                                                                                           0.9
                                                                                                                                                                         0.96
                                                                                                                                                           1

                                                                                                                                                     900
           Fig. 3. Mars orbit insertion of the meteorology orbiter.
                                                                                                                                                     800
                                                                                                                           Periapsis altitude [km]

   30800    30800                                                                                           365
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      0.86

                                                             308                                            360
                                                                                                                                                                                                                    0.88

                                                                                                                                                     700
                                                                                                                                                                 0.98

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            0.84

   30750
                                                                                                                                                                                          0.92

            30700                                                                                           355
                                                                                                                                                                                 0.94

                                                                                                                                                                                                       0.9

                                                             306
                                                                                                                                                                        0.96
                                                                                                                                                           1

   30700                                                                                                    350
                                                             304
            30600                                                                                                                                    600
                                                                                                            345
                                                             302
   30650                                                                                                    340
                    Feb 15    Mar 1         Mar 15   Apr 1                                                                                           500
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                2

                                                                                                            335
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               0.8

   30600
                                                                                                            330
                                                                                                                                                                                                                               0.86
                                                                                                                                                                                                                 0.88
                                                                                                                                                                 0.98

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    0.84

   30550                                                                                                    325
                                                                                                                                                     400
                                                                                                                                                                                         0.92
                                                                                                                                                                                0.94

                                                                                                                                                                                                     0.9

                                                                                                            320
                                                                                                                                                                        0.96
                                                                                                                                                           1

   30500
                                                                                                            315
                                                                                                                                                     300
   30450
                                                                                                            310                                             1           1.1             1.2          1.3          1.4          1.5           1.6           1.7      1.8      1.9
                                                                                                            305                                                                                                  Vinf / Vesc
   30400                                                                                                     300

       2021
               Apr                    Jul            Oct      Jan 2022
                                                                (UTCG)
                                                                         Apr        Jul         Oct    Jan 2023
                                                                                                                        Fig. 6. Ratios of total delta-Vs for 2-impulse transfers to 1-impulse
                              Apogee Altitude (km)                             Perigee Altitude (km)                    transfers. The ratio less than 1 is preferable.

Fig. 4. Transition of the apoapsis and periapsis altitude of the
meteorology orbiter.                                                                                                       Let us estimate delta-Vs in a particular case. In a 1-impulse
                                                                                                                        transfer, 1,877 m/s is required. If we choose a 2-impulse

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Trans. JSASS Aerospace Tech. Japan Vol. 10, No. ists28 (2012)

                               1000                                                                     5.1. Transfer to Mars

                                                           0.9
                                     1.3
                                     1.4 1.5

                                                                                                           In this paper, we assume the launch year to be 2022. A
                                           1
                                        1.1
                                         1.2

                               900
                                                                                                        possible mission sequence from the launch to the MOI can be
                                                                                                        designed as follows. Table 7 shows the overall sequence.
                               800
                                                                                                           A heliocentric view of the Mars transfer orbit for 2-orbiter
     Periapsis Altitude [km]

                               700                                                                      constellation is shown in Fig. 9. On 2nd September 2022, the
                                                      0.9

                                                                                                        spacecraft will be launched from Tanegashima Space Center,
                                     1.3
                                     1.4 1.5

                                           1
                                        1.1
                                         1.2

                               600                                                                      Japan. After 28-minute coasting at a 300-km altitude, the craft
                                                                                                        is injected in the outgoing transfer orbit toward Mars by a
                               500                                                                      3.85-km/s delta-V, as shown in Fig. 10. Right ascension and
                                                                                                        declination of the outgoing asymptote are 80.1 degrees and 4.45
                               400
                                                                                                        degrees, respectively. A small burn of TCM-1 is performed
                                                     0.9
                                     1.3
                                     1.4 1.5

                                           1
                                         1.1
                                          1.2

                                                                                                        15 days after the launch. After the ten-month cruise, TCM-
                               300
                                            1    2          3      4      5        6   7     8
                                                                                                        2 is planned 30 days before arriving Mars. The spacecraft
                                                           Apoapsis / radius_ASO
                                                                                                        approaches Mars with a B-parameter of 7,663 km and a phase
Fig. 7. Ratios of total delta-Vs for 3-impulse transfers to 2-impulse                                   angle of 58.57 degrees. Finally on 13th August 2023, the OME
transfers. The ratio less than 1 is preferable.                                                         of the spacecraft burns with a 1.01-km/s delta-V at a 300-km
                                                                                                        altitude of Mars to inject itself into the initial orbit with the 30-
                                                                                                        RM apoapsis as shown in Fig. 11.
transfer with an intermediate orbit of 300 km × 17,000 km,
                                                                                                        5.2. Orbit transformation for orthogonal constellation
then the total delta-V is 1,697 m/s. And in the case of 3-impulse
                                                                                                           After insertion into the initial orbit, several maneuvers are
transfer including intermediate orbits of 300 km × 50 RM and
                                                                                                        required to establish orthogonal constellation. In order to save
17,000 km × 50 RM , the delta-V is only 1,334 km/s. As Table
                                                                                                        fuel consumption, natural perturbation elements such as the J2
4 implies, a 3-impulse transfer is the best strategy to save fuel
                                                                                                        term of Mars gravity field coefficients or the air drag force are
consumption.
                                                                                                        utilized for orbit transformation.
                                                                                                           The whole sequence is illustrated in Fig. 12. First,
     Table 4. Total delta-Vs in multi-impulse transfer orbits to ASO.
                                                                                                        two spacecraft are separated, and the remote-sensing orbiter
                                                  Transfer        Total delta-V                         descents to the orbit with 8 RM apoapsis by aerobraking. Next,
                                                 1 impulse             1,877 m/s                        the in-situ orbiter changes its inclination to 84.4 degrees at
                                                2 impulses             1,697 m/s                        the apoapsis and enters into an intermediate orbit. Then,
                                                3 impulses             1,334 m/s                        difference of J2 perturbation between the two orbits causes
                                                                                                        relative precession: the precession rate of the right ascension
                                                                                                        of ascending node is −0.19 deg/day in the remote-sensing
5.                 Preliminary Orbit Design for 2-Orbiter Constellation                                 orbiter, while that in the in-situ orbiter is −0.005 deg/day,
                                                                                                        where the Mars J2 is 1.964 × 10−3 here1 . The two orbital
   As previously mentioned in Section 2., another proposal                                              planes will become almost orthogonal after 483 days. Finally
with 2-orbiter constellation aiming elucidation of atmospheric                                          the in-situ orbiter will descent to the required orbit, which
escape is under discussion. It is composed of a remote-sensing                                          will complete the orbit transformation and constellation with
orbiter and an in-situ orbiter.                                                                         precession synchronization of two orbital planes. Maneuver
   The in-situ orbiter has a low altitude orbit, while the remote-                                      sequence is also shown in Table 8.
sensing orbiter has a highly elliptical orbit. As illustrated in
Fig. 8, it is assumed that the remote-sensing orbiter looks down
upon the in-situ orbiter’s orbital plane from the apoapsis in order
to perform simultaneous observation of atmosphere7) ; i.e., the                                                                              In-situ Orbiter

two orbits should be preferably orthogonal. More exactly, the
in-situ orbiter’s normal vector and the remote-sensing orbiter’s
eccentricity vector should be parallel, and it should be kept
during the mission phase. How to establish and keep such
constellation have been discussed in previous papers8) .
   Preliminary orbital elements for the remote-sensing and in-
situ orbiters in 2-orbiter constellation are shown in Tables 5
and 6, respectively. Inclination values for two orbiters are                                                                                       Remote-Sensing Orbiter

chosen carefully so that the two orbits are orthogonal and its
                                                                                                                   Fig. 8. Constellation of two orbiters around Mars.
constellation is kept as long as possible8) . These inclination
values allow two orbital planes to share the common precession
                                                                                                            1 In this section, we used the J2 value on Rika-Nenpyo9) , for simplicity. The
rate of -0.19 deg/day, helping the maintenance of constellation.
                                                                                                        J2 value derived from GMM-2B3) , or normalized C20 is 1.956 × 10−3 , which is
                                                                                                        consistent with the value we used here within the scope of this paper.

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Table 5. Preliminary orbital elements of the remote-sensing orbiter in
2-orbiter constellation.
             Elements                      Values
                                                                                        Escaping Orbit
             Periapsis altitude [km]       300
             Apoapsis altitude [km]        23,772 (7 RM )
             Inclination [deg]             63.4                                            Launch

Table 6. Preliminary orbital elements of the in-situ orbiter in 2-orbiter
constellation.
                   Elements                    Values                                                    Coasting

                   Periapsis altitude [km]     300
                                                                                                                                   Kick Burn
                   Apoapsis altitude [km]      7,000
                   Inclination [deg]           84.4

  Table 7. A possible mission sequence for 2-orbiter constellation.
   Date                 Event                       Note                        Fig. 10. Launch, coasting and injection of 2-orbiter constellation into
   2 Sep. 2022          Launch from Tane-           27.6-min                    the Mars transfer orbit.
   03:09:01 UTC         gashima                     coast
   2 Sep. 2022          Insertion into Mars         3.85 km/s
   03:43:28 UTC         transfer orbit
   17 Sep. 2022         TCM-1 (optional)            25.9 m/s
   03:43:28 UTC
   14 Jul. 2023         TCM-2 (optional)            49.3 m/s
   03:43:28 UTC
   13 Aug. 2023         MOI into initial orbit      1.01 km/s
   03:17:38 UTC         at 300-km periapsis                                                                                       Inserted Orbit
   25 Aug. 2023         Separation          &       Aerobrake or
   15:42:19 UTC         Remote-Sensing              213 m/s
                        orbiter descent
   27 Aug. 2023         Inclination maneuver        70 m/s
   17:55:59 UTC         for In-situ orbiter
   26 Dec. 2024         In-situ orbiter de-         Aerobrake or                                                                         Insertion
   22:59:25 UTC         scent                       594 m/s                                                                              Burn
   1 Jan. 2025          Completion of con-                                                          Incoming Orbit
                        stellation

                                                                                       Fig. 11. Mars orbit insertion of 2-orbiter constellation.

                                                                                       Table 8. Changes in orbital parameters in each orbiter.

    13 Aug. 2023                                                                  Events              Remote-Sensing         In-Situ Orbiter
                                                                                                      Orbiter
                                                                                  MOI                        300 km × 30 RM , i = 63.4 deg
                                              2 Sep. 2022
                                                                                  Separation
                                                                                  Descent             30 RM → 7 RM
                                                                                  Inclination                             i = 63.4 deg → 84.4
                                                                                  Maneuver                                deg
                                                                                  Precession                          ∼ 483 days
                                                                                  Descent                                 30 RM → 7,000 km
        Fig. 9. Mars transfer orbit for 2-orbiter constellation.

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                                                                       6.   Discussion on Simultaneous or Sequential Insertion
             21 Aug. 2023
             Initial Orbit                                                In 2-orbiter constellation, two spacecraft are required to enter
                                                                       into two orbits with different altitude and inclination. It requires
                                                                       so many maneuvers and long waiting time before completion of
                                                                       constellation, as we saw above.
                                                                          The simplest way to realize such constellation is to launch
                                                                       two orbiters independently from Earth. Such scenario is
                                                                       not realistic, however, because launch opportunities, budgets,
                                                                       facilities and resources are limited in the planetary exploration
                                                                       program in Japan. Thus, we assumed that the two orbiters will
                                                                       be launched simultaneously.
            3 Sep. 2023                                                   After simultaneous launch, we can propose two scenarios for
            Separation & Descent of                                    finally acquiring two different orbits around Mars: Insertion
            Remote-Sensing Orbiter                                     before Separation (IBS) or Separation before Insertion (SBI).
            Inclination Change of                                      IBS is a strategy that we adopted in the former section, where
                                                                       the two orbiters are inserted into the initial Mars orbit, and then
            In-Situ Orbiter
                                                                       separated and several orbit transfer maneuvers are performed to
                                                                       achieve orthogonal constellation. In SBI, on the other hand,
                                                                       the orbiters are separated before arriving Mars, and inserted
                                                                       independently and sequentially into the different orbits.
                                                                          An advantage of SBI is that maneuvers and waiting time after
                                                                       MOI are not necessary, which leads to increase of the mass
            31 Aug. 2024                                               for more payloads and immediate start of the mission phase.
                                                                       However, SBI has two potential difficulties; each spacecraft
            Precession of
                                                                       needs its own OME, and almost simultaneous MOI of two
            Remote-Sensing Orbiter                                     independent spacecraft will be a quite complicated and risky
                                                                       operation for the ground station. If we intend to shift MOI
                                                                       timing between two spacecraft, considerable amount of delta-
                                                                       V will be required in the cruising phase.
                                                                          As for the mass impact of an OME on each craft, we
                                                                       found that there is not so large difference compared to the fuel
                                                                       mass needed in IBS10) . We need further quantitative trade-off
                                                                       assessment for operational impacts in the future works.
            5 Dec. 2024
                                                                       7.   Summary
            Establishment of
            Orthogonality                                                This paper described the preliminary mission analysis and
                                                                       orbit design for Japanese next Mars exploration program named
                                                                       MELOS. The scientific objectives, outlines of the mission and
                                                                       several topics about orbits were briefly described. Note that
                                                                       these descriptions are just a tentative candidate, and they are
                                                                       to be modified, confirmed and determined through ongoing
                                                                       discussion among researchers.

                                                                       Acknowledgments
            6 Jan. 2025
            Descent of In-Situ Orbiter                                   The authors are deeply grateful to Dr. K. Fujita, Mr. Y. Saitoh
                                                                       and Ms. C. Hirose in Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and
                                                                       Mr. T. Yamaguchi in The Graduate University for Advanced
                                                                       Studies, for enlightening discussions on aerodynamics, launch
                                                                       vehicle capability and orbital dynamics. The authors also
                                                                       greatly appreciate helpful advices and suggestions given by
                                                                       anonymous reviewers.

Fig. 12. Orbit maneuver sequence for establishment of orthogonal
constellation in 2-orbiter constellation.
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