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In astronomy, lunar orbit (also known as a selenocentric orbit) is the orbit of an object around the Moon. As used in the space program, this refers not to the orbit of the Moon about the Earth, but to orbits by spacecraft around the Moon. The altitude at apoapsis (point farthest from the center of attraction) for a lunar orbit is known as apolune, apocynthion, or aposelene, while the periapsis (point closest to the center of attraction) is known as perilune, pericynthion, or periselene, from names or epithets of the moon goddess. Lunar orbit insertion (LOI) is the adjustment to achieve lunar orbit, as undertaken by Apollo spacecraft for example. Low lunar orbit (LLO) are orbits below altitude. They have a period of about 2 hours. They are of particular interest in exploration of the Moon, but suffer from gravitational perturbation effects that make most unstable, and leave only a few orbital inclinations possible for indefinite frozen orbits, useful fo

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Feasibility Study and Preliminary Design of Lunar Reconnaissance Drone

Jean-Paul Richard Kneib, Thomas Pfeiffer, David Rodriguez Martinez, Erik Uythoven

With orbiting stations and ground bases planned to be built, we are yet to master the ability to explore long term and long range over areas of the Moon often characterised by an extreme topography, dauntingly low temperatures, and wedged with what are known as Permanently Shadowed Regions (PSRs). This represents significant challenges for traditional ground exploration approaches, often relying on individual, limited-range, slow, wheeled rovers. Precise knowledge about the terrain for an optimised route planning is crucial and often relies on limited-resolution satellite data from lunar orbiters, data that are even more limited in PSRs. The need for a long-range yet simple and lightweight scouting method is becoming more and more apparent. The goal of this project is to study the feasibility of a compact, lightweight, and versatile lunar reconnaissance drone that can be quickly deployed and refuelled from a ground vehicle or a rover. The drone will be capable of producing high-resolution maps (~10cm/px) that can be used to optimise mission planning and assist robotic assets on the ground. This innovative mission design was developed using established Systems Engineering tools and approaches. It highlights the main challenges of such a system and sets the baseline for future developments.

2022

The CORALIE survey for southern extrasolar planets XVII. New and updated long period and massive planets

Malte Tewes

Context. Since 1998, a planet-search program around main sequence stars within 50 pc in the southern hemisphere has been carried out with the CORALIE echelle spectrograph at La Silla Observatory. Aims. With an observing time span of more than 14 years, the CORALIE survey is now able to unveil Jovian planets on Jupiter's period domain. This growing period-interval coverage is important for building formation and migration models since observational constraints are still weak for periods beyond the ice line. Methods. Long-term precise Doppler measurements with the CORALIE echelle spectrograph, together with a few additional observations made with the HARPS spectrograph on the ESO 3.6 m telescope, reveal radial velocity signatures of massive planetary companions on long-period orbits. Results. In this paper we present seven new planets orbiting HD 27631, HD 98649, HD 106515A, HD 166724, HD 196067, HD 219077, and HD 220689, together with the CORALIE orbital parameters for three already known planets around HD 10647, HD 30562, and HD 86226. The period range of the new planetary companions goes from 2200 to 5500 days and covers a mass domain between 1 and 10.5 M-Jup. Surprisingly, five of them present very high eccentricities above e > 0 : 57. A pumping scenario by Kozai mechanism may be invoked for HD 106515Ab and HD 196067b, which are both orbiting stars in multiple systems. Since the presence of a third massive body cannot be inferred from the data of HD 98649b, HD 166724b, and HD 219077b, the origin of the eccentricity of these systems remains unknown. Except for HD 10647b, no constraint on the upper mass of the planets is provided by HIPPARCOS astrometric data. Finally, the hosts of these long period planets show no metallicity excess.

Edp Sciences S A2013

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