General Question How are b-plane parameters determined

kalral

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Reading from this document, I am trying to simulate the New Horizons probe trajectory in GMAT and I am puzzled with how the authors of the original paper (by legendary mission designer Robert W. Farquhar and Yanping Guo) got the B-Plane parameters for the Jupiter flyby.

From the original paper the correct B-Plane parameters for the Jupiter flyby should be
1671630283204.png

What techniques do they use to actually derive the correct Fly-by parameters? Is there any method that I can use in GMAT to arrive at those actual parameters? One method that I can think of is using the Optimization module in GMAT but I am not sure If that is the correct route.

One more interesting case is the Perseverance Rovers b-plane targeting to land at a specific location


How do Nasa calculate those b-plane parameters to target a specific landing location. What math do they use?
 

Boxx

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  1. You have to compute the osculating parameters wrt the target (that you want to flyby), i.e. the orbital parameters of the arriving hyperbola
  2. the plane that contains the body center and is perpendicular to the arriving branch IS the B-plane, by definition
  3. then, the intersection of your actual trajectory with the B-plane should give you the pericenter of the hyperbola

How do Nasa calculate those b-plane parameters to target a specific landing location. What math do they use?
search for "spaceflight dynamics" or "mission analysis" and you'll find many resources
 
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