Trajectory Options for DUNE, a Near-Earth Dust Telescope

This paper compares five mission design scenarios for the proposed Dust Near Earth (DUNE) spacecraft. DUNE's science requires it to carry a dust telescope outside of the Earth's magnetosphere, yet its communication requirements restrict it to orbits within the orbit of the Moon. The scenarios considered in this paper include trajectories that place DUNE into highly eccentric Earth orbits, lunar orbits, and lunar halo orbits. This paper concludes that the most successful mission design option for DUNE implements a lunar gravity assist to place the spacecraft in a very high Earth orbit with a raised inclination.