Trajectories of a spacecraft aiming to approach at a near-regular cadence of the Enceladus and Dione moons

Saturn currently has about 62 moons already discovered. This number is uncertain due to the numerous of objects that orbit the planet, but it guarantees the placement of the second planet with the highest number of moons in the Solar System, each one with diverse physical and orbital characteristics. Among all the large moons of Saturn, Dione and Enceladus are the subject of the present work, whose objective is to evaluate strategic trajectories aiming to approach an artificial satellite to these moons, in a near-regular cadence. In the vicinity of Dione and Enceladus, the artificial satellite is significantly perturbed by the gravitational potential of Saturn, which in this work is expanded in spherical harmonics (J2), and also by the gravitational field of the 13 largest moons. All simulations were done using the Spacecraft Trajectory Simulator, an orbital simulator capable to consider continuous propulsion, and trajectory control in closed loop.