Related papers: Algorithmic Considerations for Effective Global Se…
The growing interest in cislunar space exploration in recent years has driven an increasing demand for efficient low-thrust missions to key cislunar orbits. These missions, typically possessing long thrust arcs, are particularly susceptible…
Long time-duration low-thrust nonlinear optimal spacecraft trajectory global search is a computationally and time expensive problem characterized by clustering patterns in locally optimal solutions. During preliminary mission design,…
As low-thrust space missions increase in prevalence, it is becoming increasingly important to design robust trajectories against unforeseen thruster outages or missed thrust events. Accounting for such events is particularly important in…
Spacecraft operations are influenced by uncertainties such as dynamics modeling, navigation, and maneuver execution errors. Although mission design has traditionally incorporated heuristic safety margins to mitigate the effect of…
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,…
This paper proposes a systematic method for generating practical and robust low-thrust spacecraft trajectories. One contribution is to consider the change in mass of the spacecraft at two levels: a) the propulsive acceleration and b) the…
Space missions that use low-thrust propulsion technology are becoming increasingly popular since they utilize propellant more efficiently and thus reduce mission costs. However, optimizing continuous-thrust trajectories is complex,…
In Cislunar space, spacecraft are able to exploit naturally periodic orbits, which provide operational reliability. However, these periodic orbits only exist in a limited volume. Enabled by low-thrust propulsion, spacecraft can produce a…
Spacecraft relative motion planning is concerned with the design and execution of maneuvers relative to a nominal target. These types of maneuvers are frequently utilized in missions such as rendezvous and docking, satellite inspection and…
Low-thrust electric propulsion missions are often designed under simplifying assumptions such as constant thrust or fixed specific impulse, neglecting the strong coupling between trajectory dynamics, spacecraft power availability, and…
This study proposes a new automated strategy for designing and optimizing three-dimensional interplanetary low-thrust (LT) trajectories. The method formulates the design as a hybrid optimal control problem and solves it using a two-step…
The reachable set of controlled dynamical systems consist of the set of all possible reachable states from an initial condition, over a certain period of time under various control and operation constraints and exogenous disturbances. For…
Numerous high-thrust and low-thrust space propulsion technologies have been developed in the recent years with the goal of expanding space exploration capabilities; however, designing and optimizing a multi-mission campaign with both…
Trajectory design in cislunar space under a High-Fidelity Ephemeris Model (HFEM) is pursued through a nonlinear optimization perspective anchored on the transition of solutions from lower fidelity models, namely the Circular Restricted…
Motion planners for mobile robots in unknown environments face the challenge of simultaneously maintaining both robustness against unmodeled uncertainties and persistent feasibility of the trajectory-finding problem. That is, while dealing…
The resurgence of lunar operations requires advancements in cislunar navigation and Space Situational Awareness (SSA). Challenges associated to these tasks have created an interest in autonomous planning, navigation, and tracking…
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…
In this paper the preliminary design of multiple gravity-assist trajectories is formulated as a global optimization problem. An analysis of the structure of the solution space reveals a strong multimodality, which is strictly dependent on…
Near-Earth Objects (NEOs) are attractive exploration targets due to their accessibility, scientific value, and resources. Although trajectory design has revealed efficient pathways to these bodies, systematic strategies for Earth-NEO…
In this paper, we describe a robust multi-drone planning framework for high-speed trajectories in large scenes. It uses a free-space-oriented map to free the optimization from cumbersome environment data. A capsule-like safety constraint is…