NAVIGATION ANALYSIS FOR THE PRIMARY SCIENCE ORBITS OF PARKER SOLAR PROBE

Navigation analysis is presented regarding how to best achieve the three primary science orbits for the Parker Solar Probe mission upon completion of the final Venus flyby. It is shown that expected delivery to Venus ensures the primary science requirement is met without additional correction maneuvers and with margin. A linear covariance study and a nonlinear Monte Carlo study are used to verify this result as well as to determine how poor the final Venus delivery would need to be to threaten the prime science requirement. Potential fuel costs of enacting the pre-launch plan of targeting back to a reference perihelion radius at each solar encounter are quantified. Finally, the actual delivery to Venus and the resulting post-flyby trajectory is presented.