End-of-life disposal of libration point orbit missions: The case of Gaia

Abstract

This work investigates end of life disposal options for libration point orbit missions. Three different options are presented: the first one considers spacecraft's re-entry in Earth's atmosphere, the second one concerns the impact on the Moon, whereas the third one consists in the injection of the spacecraft into a heliocentric graveyard orbit. The disposal design is formulated as a multi-objective optimization problem in order to take into account other goals in addition to propellant consumption minimization. The disposal of Gaia mission is used as test case throughout the paper.