Introduction: Ad Lunam!
Kira A -
Plastered on the walls of my childhood bedroom were posters illustrating concepts for the first human habitat on the Martian surface, spaceship designs for interplanetary travel, and other out-of-this-world ideas for space exploration that fueled my juvenile dreams of exploring beyond this planet. However, as I navigated high school and found opportunities to investigate this passion in depth by taking classes such as AP Physics 1 and AP Physics 2 and participating in an astrophysics summer science program, I realized that something as wild as establishing a permanent human presence beyond Earth was not as childish as I had once thought. After all, the moon had long stood as merely an object in our sky, something far from the grasp of humans until the United States landed the first man on the moon, a manifestation of human kind’s indomitable spirit and innate desire to explore. So as I entered my final year of high school, empowered by the knowledge I have acquired over the past years and inspired by the joy it has brought me through learning it, I was compelled to pursue this dream through a joint AP Research/Senior Research Project.
Under the guidance of my teachers and mentors Dr. John Goodwin and Akash Joseph, and the supervision of my external advisor, Dr. Muhammad Omer Farooq, at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, my vision is to set sail, just as the world’s space agencies did many years ago, towards the moon. Due to its proximity to Earth and low gravity, the Moon is the best candidate for establishing an off-world base for future exploratory operations through our Solar System and beyond. For this reason, the mission focuses on investigating various orbital maneuvers and orbital trajectories within the cislunar region – the region between Earth and the Moon – to allow for optimized and cost-effective modes of transport from one body to another.
As I enter Trimester 3, I am excited to launch into MATLAB (Matrix Laboratory), a programming language commonly used by aerospace engineers in the industry for its robust aerospace numerical analysis toolbox and graphical programming environment, SIMULINK, to model, simulate and analyze systems. My first task will be to model basic orbital maneuvers such as the Hohmann transfer and bi-ellitpic Hohmann transfer to solidify a concrete understanding of the orbital mechanics the industry uses today to send spacecraft through the cislunar region to the moon. I will then be able to leverage this knowledge as I move into more novel approaches and eventually into the orbit-raising maneuver (ORM): the maneuver I plan to implement in my mission to reduce the fuel used in orbit transfer between the Earth and the Moon. I will be using the Chandrayaan 3 Lunar mission by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) as inspiration for much of the work I will do with implementing the ORM into my mission.
I am ecstatic to be able to share my work with you all and to be under the guidance of such knowledgeable and willing mentors as I embark on this journey to the Moon. Stay tuned for more.
Ad Lunam!
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