Related papers: The optimisation of low-acceleration interstellar …
This paper investigates the use of Reinforcement Learning for the robust design of low-thrust interplanetary trajectories in presence of severe disturbances, modeled alternatively as Gaussian additive process noise, observation noise,…
Interstellar travel in the Milky Way is commonly thought to be a long and dangerous enterprise, but are all galaxies so hazardous? I introduce the concept of galactic traversability to address this question. Stellar populations are one…
Genetic algorithms are modeled after the biological evolutionary processes that use natural selection to select the best species to survive. They are heuristics based and low cost to compute. Genetic algorithms use selection, crossover, and…
This paper presents a sizing procedure for a rocket family capable of fulfilling multiple missions, considering the commonalities between the vehicles. The procedure aims to take full advantage of sharing a common part across multiple…
After providing a brief historical overview on the synergies between artificial intelligence research, in the areas of evolutionary computations and machine learning, and the optimal design of interplanetary trajectories, we propose and…
Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite constellations combine great flexibility and global coverage with short propagation delays when compared to satellites deployed in higher orbits. However, the fast movement of the individual satellites makes…
In this paper, Particle Swarm Optimization with energy-to-fuel continuation is proposed for initializing the co-state variables for low-thrust minimum-fuel trajectory optimization problems in the circular restricted three-body problem.…
Solar-powered electric propulsion systems can operate in multiple modes and their operation is coupled to the power generated by solar arrays. However, the power produced by the solar arrays is a function of the solar array size and…
The inherent support of sixth-generation (6G) systems enabling integrated sensing and communications (ISAC) paradigm greatly enhances the application area of intelligent transportation systems (ITS). One of the mission-critical applications…
This work presents a sequential convex program method to compute fuel-optimal collision avoidance maneuvers for long-term encounters. The low-thrust acceleration model is used to account for the control, but the method can compute…
Future interplanetary missions will carry more and more sensitive equipment critical for setting up bases for crewed missions. The ability to manoeuvre around hazardous terrain thus becomes a critical mission aspect. However, large diverts…
A long-lived civilization will inevitably have to migrate towards a nearby star as its home star runs out of nuclear fuel. One way to achieve such a migration is by transforming its star into a stellar engine, and to control its motion in…
Previous work in studying interstellar exploration by one or several probes has focused primarily either on engineering models for a spacecraft targeting a single star system, or large-scale simulations to ascertain the time required for a…
This paper presents the development and evaluation of an optimization-based autonomous trajectory planning algorithm for the asteroid reconnaissance phase of a deep-space exploration mission. The reconnaissance phase is a low-altitude flyby…
A numerical optimization study of minimum-fuel Earth-based orbital transfers from low-Earth orbit (LEO) to either medium-Earth orbit (MEO), high-Earth orbit (HEO), or geostationary orbit (GEO), is performed. Various values of maximum…
This paper proposes a nonlinear guidance algorithm for fuel-optimal impulsive trajectories for rendezvous operations close to a reference orbit. The approach involves overparameterized monomial coordinates and a high-order approximation of…
This paper presents a modeling and optimization framework to compute the minimum-lap-time spatial trajectory and powertrain operation of racing cars in a computationally efficient fashion. Specifically, we first derive a quasi-steady-state…
The design and comparison of satellite-terrestrial routing (STR) and inter-satellite routing (ISR) in low Earth orbit satellite constellations is a widely discussed topic. The signal propagation distance under STR is generally longer than…
This paper studies energy-efficient unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)-enabled wireless communications, where the UAV acts as a flying base station (BS) to serve the ground users (GUs) within some predetermined latency constraints, e.g.,…
(Abridged) Out-of-the-ecliptic trajectories that are beneficial to space observatories such as the Terrestrial Planet Finder and other potential mid-IR missions are introduced. These novel trajectories result in significantly reduced…