Improved Multi-Impulse Insertion Design to Elliptical Lunar Frozen Orbit for South Pole Relay Satellite Deployment

Improved Multi-Impulse Insertion Design to Elliptical Lunar Frozen Orbit for South Pole Relay Satellite Deployment | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Improved Multi-Impulse Insertion Design to Elliptical Lunar Frozen Orbit for South Pole Relay Satellite Deployment Cheng Chen, Yuhua Tang, Xiangyu Li, Chaoyang Gao This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-7277472/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract The elliptical lunar frozen orbit (ELFO) has attracted significant attention in lunar south exploration missions in recent years due to its excellent coverage of the lunar polar regions. Traditional direct insertion methods often require substantial velocity increments due to the strict constraint of the argument of perilune. To address this challenge, this paper proposes an improved multi-impulse lunar orbit insertion (LOI) method for ELFO. It takes advantage of the Earth's gravitational perturbation with multiple small impulses to adjust the argument of perilune during the LOI phase and in turn reduce the velocity increments. First, considering different engineering constraints, the translunar launch windows are identified based on a hierarchical design method, and the characteristics of different Earth-Moon direct transfer orbit types are analyzed. Next, the improved LOI method is proposed and detailed. A multi-impulse LOI optimization model is established based on the hybrid orbit model. Finally, the proposed improved LOI method is applied to design the orbit for a lunar south pole relay satellite. Simulation results show that the descent-descent Earth-Moon transfer orbit type is optimal for ELFO insertion supporting Earth-lunar south pole communication. Moreover, the proposed method achieves a total velocity increment of approximately 356 m/s over a 141-hour insertion duration. Compared to the traditional method, the proposed method saves about 33% of fuel while only extending the insertion duration by 5 days. This research could provide significant technical support for orbit insertion into ELFO and offer a valuable reference for designing the orbit in future lunar south pole exploration missions. Lunar south pole exploration Lunar relay satellite Elliptical lunar frozen orbit Improved multi-impulse lunar orbit insertion Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-7277472","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":553656679,"identity":"873f795d-5fba-4c92-b804-a482c7d305c7","order_by":0,"name":"Cheng Chen","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Beijing Institute of Technology","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Cheng","middleName":"","lastName":"Chen","suffix":""},{"id":553656680,"identity":"5f7f930d-d385-40a2-8406-d53b6b83c46e","order_by":1,"name":"Yuhua Tang","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Center for Lunar Exploration and Space 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Deployment","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"Lunar south pole exploration, Lunar relay satellite, Elliptical lunar frozen orbit, Improved 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Traditional direct insertion methods often require substantial velocity increments due to the strict constraint of the argument of perilune. To address this challenge, this paper proposes an improved multi-impulse lunar orbit insertion (LOI) method for ELFO. It takes advantage of the Earth's gravitational perturbation with multiple small impulses to adjust the argument of perilune during the LOI phase and in turn reduce the velocity increments. First, considering different engineering constraints, the translunar launch windows are identified based on a hierarchical design method, and the characteristics of different Earth-Moon direct transfer orbit types are analyzed. Next, the improved LOI method is proposed and detailed. A multi-impulse LOI optimization model is established based on the hybrid orbit model. Finally, the proposed improved LOI method is applied to design the orbit for a lunar south pole relay satellite. Simulation results show that the descent-descent Earth-Moon transfer orbit type is optimal for ELFO insertion supporting Earth-lunar south pole communication. Moreover, the proposed method achieves a total velocity increment of approximately 356 m/s over a 141-hour insertion duration. Compared to the traditional method, the proposed method saves about 33% of fuel while only extending the insertion duration by 5 days. This research could provide significant technical support for orbit insertion into ELFO and offer a valuable reference for designing the orbit in future lunar south pole exploration missions.\u003c/p\u003e","manuscriptTitle":"Improved Multi-Impulse Insertion Design to Elliptical Lunar Frozen Orbit for South Pole Relay Satellite Deployment","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2025-12-03 02:33:15","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-7277472/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"1fc2565c-ed48-413f-aebf-734d9667f406","owner":[],"postedDate":"December 3rd, 2025","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"posted","subjectAreas":[],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2025-12-03T02:33:15+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2025-12-03 02:33:15","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-7277472","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-7277472","identity":"rs-7277472","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"8U1c8b4HqxoKbykW_rLl7","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}