Features

• A robust, flexible, multiple leg (up to 10) mission optimization program suitable for pre¬liminary mission studies of both manned and unmanned solar system missions;
• Supporting programs to evaluate various events, conditions and information (such as nodal crossings, alignments, close approaches, and locations of solar system bodies) that are useful in the analysis of typical missions;
• Interfaces to the DE405 planetary ephemeris file and the comprehensive Dastcom ephemeris file of asteroids and comets that is maintained at JPL;
• A program to interrogate the comet/asteroid file for entries with characteristics satisfying a list of inequality constraints;
• Provisions to maintain multiple databases of orbital elements of user defined bodies;
• A program to map trajectory and performance data of single leg trajectories over a range of departure and arrival dates at specified intervals;
• A graphics program to display contour (porkchop) plots from the data produced by the trajectory mapping program;
• A comet/asteroid mission building utility that isolates near encounters (within a specified threshold distance) of the spacecraft with all or a defined subset of the solar system bodies known to MAnE during a mission and/or a mission extension;
• A mission surveying program that automates the search for low cost solar system exploration missions to asteroids and comets;
• An internal graphics module for instantaneously displaying the ecliptic projections of planetary, asteroid and comet orbits and the spacecraft trajectory;
• A program to perform a variety of time and date conversions and simple math computations involving calendar and Julian dates and time intervals.
• Programs that provide for the display, printing and writing to file of encounter details at swingby and at planetary orbit escape and capture. The write to file feature provides for a general interface and transfer of data among other mission analysis tools and programs.
• Comprehensive spacecraft and propulsion system model permits detailed spacecraft component specification and distinct modeling of the propulsion system for each maneuver.
• Mission optimization criterion may be maximum net payload or minimum initial mass, total mission Delta-V or mission duration.
• Velocity loss estimates and multiple periapsis burns for planetary escape and capture may optionally be included and accounted for in the optimization process.
• Special situations, such as multiple revolution legs, hyperbolic heliocentric arcs, retrograde trajectory legs, and exact n-pi transfers (essential for analyzing repeated encounters of the same body) are fully supported.
• The end conditions which link trajectory legs may be represented by orbit capture and escape with specified or optimal stay time at the massive planets, powered or unpowered planetary swingby, rendezvous with asteroids and comets with fixed or optimal stay time, powered or unpowered flyby of small objects, or deep space burns, in any combination.
• Targeting to specific heliocentric orbit conditions on the final leg (e.g., solar probe mission) is supported.