Mission design for space telescope servicing at Sun–Earth L2.

The Sun–Earth Lagrange points, L1 and L2, are excellent locations for space based observatories, due to their favorable dynamical and environmental properties. Space telescopes, however, come with an extremely high price tag, and without refueling and servicing the typical lifetime is only about ten to fifteen years. The return on investment of a space telescope could be significantly increased by developing on-orbit servicing and refueling capabilities, assuming that the servicing vehicle can be launched at a fraction of the cost of the original mission and that the lifetime of the space telescope can be significantly extended to allow for continued scientific activity. In this paper we demonstrate the feasibility of this class of servicing mission from a trajectory design perspective, using novel techniques that we have developed for quick sampling of the solution space, as well as an efficient and reliable means to obtained high-fidelity, time-optimal, end-to-end transfer trajectories. As candidates for this investigation we consider Gaia and the James Webb Space Telescope. Our trajectory design methodology is, however, general enough to be applicable to future space observatories that are designed to be serviceable in space. • The lifetime of space assets at SEL2 can be greatly extended via servicing missions. • Poincare maps are leveraged to explore the design space and obtain initial guesses. • Indirect methods are used to refine the initial guesses and design optimal transfers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]