Related papers: How Many Impulses Redux
Low-thrust, many-revolution transfers between near-rectilinear halo orbits and low lunar orbits are challenging due to the many-revolutions and is further complicated by three-body perturbation. To address these challenges, we extend hybrid…
A new approach is presented for the problem of optimal impulsive rendezvous of a spacecraft in an inertial frame near a circular orbit in a Newtonian gravitational field. The total characteristic velocity to be minimized is replaced by a…
This paper shows how to find lower bounds on, and sometimes solve globally, a large class of nonlinear optimal control problems with impulsive controls using semi-definite programming (SDP). This is done by relaxing an optimal control…
In this work, we develop a new method to design energy minimum low-thrust missions (L2-minimization). In the Circular Restricted Three Body Problem, the knowledge of invariant manifolds helps us initialize an indirect method solving a…
This article solves an optimal control problem arising in attitude control of a spacecraft under state and control constraints. We first derive the discrete-time attitude dynamics by employing discrete mechanics. The orientation transfer,…
We study a more complex case of Hohmann orbital transfer of a satellite by considering non-coplanar and elliptical orbits, instead of planar and circular orbits. We use as parameter the angle between the initial and transference planes that…
In this paper, the time- and propellant-optimal low-thrust rephasing problems in circular orbit are studied to depict their solution spaces in an atlas. The number of key parameters that settle the rephasing problems is reduced by…
Multi-rendezvous spacecraft trajectory optimization problems are notoriously difficult to solve. For this reason, the design space is usually pruned by using heuristics and past experience. As an alternative, the current research explores…
Low-thrust engines for interplanetary spacecraft transfers allow cost-effective space missions with flexible launch and arrival dates. To find fuel-optimal trajectories, an optimal control problem is to be solved. Pontryagin's Maximum…
The problem under consideration is to drive a spatial vehicle to a target at a given final time while minimizing fuel consumption. This is a classical optimal control problem in a deterministic setting. However temporary stochastic failures…
The problem of minimum-time, low-thrust, Earth-to-Mars interplanetary orbital trajectory optimization is considered. The minimum-time orbital transfer problem is modeled as a four-phase optimal control problem where the four phases…
Homotopy methods have been widely utilized to solve low-thrust orbital transfer problems, however, it is not guaranteed that the optimal solution can be obtained by the existing homotopy methods. In this paper, a new homotopy method is…
Gateway will represent a primary logistic infrastructure in cislunar space. The identification of efficient orbit transfers capable of connecting Earth, Moon, and Gateway paves the way for enabling refurbishment, servicing, and utilization…
A method to compute optimal collision avoidance maneuvers for short-term encounters is presented. The maneuvers are modeled as multiple-impulses to handle impulsive cases and to approximate finite burn arcs associated either with short…
We consider a setting in which an evolving surface is implicitly characterized as the zero level of a level set function. Such an implicit surface does not encode any information about the path of a single point on the evolving surface. In…
In this paper, we consider the classical spacecraft rendezvous problem in which the so-called active spacecraft has to approach the target spacecraft which is moving in an elliptical orbit around a planet by using the minimum possible…
How systems transit between different stable states under external perturbation is an important practical issue. We discuss here how a recently-developed energy optimization method for identifying the minimal disturbance necessary to reach…
The design of transfers to periodic orbits in the Earth-Moon system has regained prominence with NASA's Artemis and CNSA's Chang'e programs. This work addresses the problem of linking ballistic capture trajectories - exploiting multi-body…
For the well-known model of a system of N particles with interaction (N-body problem), we consider the spatial problem of finding the minimum of the function of the kinetic energy of a system on its phase space under conditions on its size…
This work presents a new method for generating impulsive trajectories in restricted two-body systems by leveraging Riemannian geometry. The proposed method transforms the standard trajectory optimization problem into a purely geometric one…