MISSION DESIGN FOR NASA’S VAN ALLEN PROBES MISSION

摘要

The Van Allen Probes mission, part of NASA’s Living With a Star Program, successfully launched on August 30th, 2012 from the Cape Canaveral Atlas-V Space Launch Complex 41. The two year mission consists of two spin stabilized spacecraft in highly eccentric Earth orbits that provide insight into the dynamics of Earth’s radiation belts. The observatories were designed, built, and operated by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. The two spacecraft were launched on a single Atlas V 401 launch vehicle, and placed in orbits that cause one spacecraft to lap the other approximately four times per year. This paper describes the spacecraft and instruments, the pertinent science requirements that influenced the trajectory design, the launch vehicle windows and targeting, and explains some of the unique features of the orbit evolution to achieve requirements. Also addressed is the post-separation trajectory correction rationale and notional end-of-life decommissioning plans.