Week 3: To the moon.. and maybe Disneyland!

Kira A -

Welcome back everyone! By the time you read this blog, I will likely be 10,000 ft above sea level snowboarding with the view of Lake Tahoe in front of me. (Ok, technically it’s behind me in this picture).

 

Pinnacles Left at Heavenly Lake Tahoe

 

I am so incredibly thankful for this past week as it was filled with great memories I made with my friends and family: first in Disneyland and Knott’s Berry Farm and now in Lake Tahoe. The only thing left to do after all of that is go to the moon! But first, as I unfortunately do not have as much to report to you guys this week due to my travel, I have prepared a short video for you all explaining the orbital parameters (or elements) I will be using to define the orbit of my spacecraft throughout this mission. Below is the Youtube link so if you have the time, I would greatly appreciate it if you all could go and watch it!

This week, beyond covering the orbital parameters for my spacecraft, I wanted to look into the objectives for my mission. As stated before, my mission will be designed for freight transport to lunar orbit from orbit around Earth. However, I would like to outline some of the secondary objectives that this mission will aid in the completion of. The U.S. based Lunar Exploration Analysis Group (LEAG) revises and publishes the Lunar Exploration Roadmap (LER) each year to lay out many of the objectives for space agencies worldwide to follow and achieve as they explore the Moon and establish infrastructure on and around its surface. To organize these objectives, the LER has three main themes: the Science theme (Sci), the Feed Forward theme (FF), and the Sustainability theme (Sust). Among the many objectives outlined in the LER, my mission most closely aligns with the Sust objectives B-1, B-4, and B-6: “Implementation of comprehensive, coordinated integration of diverse scientific and exploration activities to maximize complementary operations and minimize operational and environmental conflicts,”  “Establishment of sustainable transportation between Earth and the lunar surface,” and “Establishment of Global Communications and Navigation Capability,” respectively. In other words, my mission aims to facilitate further exploration and research on the Moon through creating an efficient mode of transportation between the Earth and the Moon and allowing streamlined communications within the cislunar region. 

 

Looking towards next week, I plan to jump back into MATLAB to start modeling the orbit-raising maneuver so I can implement it into my final mission.

 

Thank you to all those who have been reading my blog since the beginning and to those who joined along the way! As always, a BIG thank you to Dr. Goodwin, Mr. Joseph, and Dr. Farooq for your generous support and guidance. I hope you will all join me again next week. 

 

Ad Lunam!



More Posts

Comments:

All viewpoints are welcome but profane, threatening, disrespectful, or harassing comments will not be tolerated and are subject to moderation up to, and including, full deletion.

    Akash Joseph
    Hi Kira! I see you had a rather fun week :). You did an excellent job with your YouTube video in explaining the different orbital parameters to be used in your analysis. It gives the reader/viewer a clearer understanding of the topic. I like your outline for the objectives of your mission, however, I am enthused to learn more about the spacecraft parameters themselves. Will you be delving into that soon? Perhaps the instrumentation onboard, power systems, etc.? Looking forward to your next blog! Ad Astra!
    March 3, 2025 at 9:37 am - Reply
    anita_m
    Howdy Kira, Great explanation and nice pictures! How does different classifications of space exploration objectives affect the likelihood of a mission happening? Are some themes considered more "important" than others and do those get priority?
    March 3, 2025 at 11:10 am - Reply
    camille_bennett
    Hi Kira, love your video. Will there be any long-term plans to expand your mission’s capabilities beyond freight transport, such as moving towards supporting lunar bases or human exploration of the Moon?
    March 4, 2025 at 12:56 pm - Reply
    Cassie Carino
    Hi Kira, This is a very ambitious project, and I am super excited to hear all about it!! Your video helped me visualize and understand the orbital parameters as it pertains to your mission. I am curious as to how you will implement these parameters into your simulation/analysis. Will you be utilizing initial conditions from existing missions, or will you implement your own values- for instance, values of eccentricity for desired orbits in maneuvers like the Orbit Raising Maneuver? I am excited to keep reading and hear your analysis!
    March 5, 2025 at 3:37 pm - Reply
    kira_a
    Hi Mr. Joseph! Thank you for your interest. My week 4 blog is all about the design considerations for my spacecraft, so if you would like to check that out, it will hopefully outline more of what you are curious about.
    March 19, 2025 at 11:04 am - Reply
    kira_a
    Hello Anita! The LER does not necessarily rank the classifications of exploration objectives based on priority, but rather time/phasing considerations. Within Sci, FF, and Sust, there are different phases of objectives based on when they must be completed in relation to other objectives. So mission objectives that must be completed for another objective to be considered are more likely to happen because they are more urgent.
    March 19, 2025 at 11:07 am - Reply
    kira_a
    Thank you, Mrs. Bennett. For the scope of my mission, I plan to stick with freight transport due to the length (time taken) of the orbit-raising maneuver and the risk that prolonged space exposure poses to any astronauts that may be onboard. However, the goal is that a freight transportation system set up between the Earth and the Moon will facilitate lunar exploration and the establishment of lunar bases.
    March 19, 2025 at 11:12 am - Reply
    kira_a
    Hi, Mrs. Carino. Thank you for the thoughtful question! I plan to crosscheck my code initially with previous mission values (for example, the Chandrayaan-3, which also used the orbit-raising maneuver) and textbook (Orbital Mechanics for Engineers) values for the orbital parameters such as semi-major axis and eccentricity. This will allow me to confirm that my code calculates the desired output values correctly, then, I will use my own values for the orbital parameters of my mission specifically.
    March 19, 2025 at 11:17 am - Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *