Author: CislunarSpace

Website: https://cislunarspace.cn

Tsinghua University

Tsinghua University (清华大学) is one of China's most prestigious institutions of higher learning, located in the northwest suburbs of Beijing. Founded in 1911 as Tsinghua Xuetang, it was renamed Tsinghua School in 1912 and became National Tsinghua University in 1928. After the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937, the university relocated to Changsha and merged with Peking University and Nankai University to form the National Changsha Temporary University, which later moved to Kunming and became National Southwest Associated University. Tsinghua returned to its original campus in 1946.

Following the national院系调整 (college and department restructuring) of 1952, Tsinghua became a polytechnic university focused on engineering talent cultivation, earning the nickname "Cradle of Red Engineers." Since the Reform and Opening Up era, Tsinghua has progressively established its long-term goal of building a world-class university, restoring and creating programs in science, humanities, medicine, and management. Today, Tsinghua comprises 33 schools, 54 departments, and 16 colleges, covering 12 discipline categories including science, engineering, humanities, arts, history, philosophy, economics, management, law, education, medicine, and interdisciplinary studies.

Tsinghua's research relevant to cislunar space includes work on DRO (Distant Retrograde Orbit) round-trip trajectory optimization using lunar gravity assist and multi-pulse methods.

Bao Yin Hexi

Cislunar orbital transfer

Multi-pulse trajectory optimization for DRO round-trip transfer in cislunar space

Reference: Bao Y, Zhang N, Wu D. Multi-pulse trajectory optimization for DRO round-trip transfer in cislunar space[J]. Flight Control & Detection, 2025.

Abstract: The Distant Retrograde Orbit (DRO) in cislunar space can serve as a transit hub for future lunar development and Mars crewed missions, and its scheduled round-trip transfers are important for sustained logistics and supply replenishment. Addressing challenges such as constrained transfer duration and broad time-window demands arising from scheduled operations, this work adopts lunar gravity assist techniques and a perturbation Lambert problem solver for multi-pulse trajectory optimization to reduce fuel consumption per transfer trajectory. A local optimization method is also used to plan DRO parking time-window sequences, achieving global optimization across multiple round-trip transfer trajectories. Simulations show that specific time windows exist where later-departing spacecraft arrive at the DRO service station earlier, enabling lower overall mission fuel consumption, and that the local optimization of parking time-window sequences can save up to 2.5 % of total mission fuel.

Zhang Nan

Cislunar orbital transfer

Multi-pulse trajectory optimization for DRO round-trip transfer in cislunar space

Reference: Bao Y, Zhang N, Wu D. Multi-pulse trajectory optimization for DRO round-trip transfer in cislunar space[J]. Flight Control & Detection, 2025.

Abstract: The Distant Retrograde Orbit (DRO) in cislunar space can serve as a transit hub for future lunar development and Mars crewed missions, and its scheduled round-trip transfers are important for sustained logistics and supply replenishment. Addressing challenges such as constrained transfer duration and broad time-window demands arising from scheduled operations, this work adopts lunar gravity assist techniques and a perturbation Lambert problem solver for multi-pulse trajectory optimization to reduce fuel consumption per transfer trajectory. A local optimization method is also used to plan DRO parking time-window sequences, achieving global optimization across multiple round-trip transfer trajectories. Simulations show that specific time windows exist where later-departing spacecraft arrive at the DRO service station earlier, enabling lower overall mission fuel consumption, and that the local optimization of parking time-window sequences can save up to 2.5 % of total mission fuel.

Wu Di

Cislunar orbital transfer

Multi-pulse trajectory optimization for DRO round-trip transfer in cislunar space

Reference: Bao Y, Zhang N, Wu D. Multi-pulse trajectory optimization for DRO round-trip transfer in cislunar space[J]. Flight Control & Detection, 2025.

Abstract: The Distant Retrograde Orbit (DRO) in cislunar space can serve as a transit hub for future lunar development and Mars crewed missions, and its scheduled round-trip transfers are important for sustained logistics and supply replenishment. Addressing challenges such as constrained transfer duration and broad time-window demands arising from scheduled operations, this work adopts lunar gravity assist techniques and a perturbation Lambert problem solver for multi-pulse trajectory optimization to reduce fuel consumption per transfer trajectory. A local optimization method is also used to plan DRO parking time-window sequences, achieving global optimization across multiple round-trip transfer trajectories. Simulations show that specific time windows exist where later-departing spacecraft arrive at the DRO service station earlier, enabling lower overall mission fuel consumption, and that the local optimization of parking time-window sequences can save up to 2.5 % of total mission fuel.