Related papers: Low-Thrust Trajectory Optimization for Cubesat Lun…
The earth's orbit is becoming increasingly crowded with debris that poses significant safety risks to the operation of existing and new spacecraft and satellites. The active tether-net system, which consists of a flexible net with…
The increase in the application of the satellite has skyrocketed the number of satellites, especially in the low earth orbit. The major concern today is after the end of life, these satellites become debris which negatively affects the…
Hayabusa2 is the Japanese Asteroid Return Mission and targeted the carbonaceous asteroid Ryugu, conducted by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). The goal of this mission was to conduct proximity operations including remote…
The proposal of increasingly complex and innovative space endeavours poses growing demands for mission designers. In order to meet the established requirements and constraints while maintaining a low fuel cost, the use of low-energy…
In this paper, we employ successive convexification to solve the minimum-time 6-DoF rocket powered landing problem. The contribution of this paper is the development and demonstration of a free-final-time problem formulation that can be…
HERMES (High Energy Rapid Modular Ensemble of Satellites) is a space-borne mission based on a constellation of nano-satellites flying in a low-Earth orbit (LEO). The six 3U CubeSat buses host new miniaturized instruments hosting a hybrid…
Ahead of the United States' crewed return to the moon in 2024, Intuitive Machines, under a NASA Commercial Lunar Payload Services contract, will land their Nova-C lunar lander in October 2021. At 30 meters altitude during the terminal…
Operating satellites in Very Low Earth Orbit (VLEO) benefits the already expanding New Space industry in applications including Earth Observation and beyond. However, long-term operations at such low altitudes require propulsion systems to…
The commercial interest in producing low-cost space missions by exploiting the superior propellant management of low-thrust propulsion technology has become increasingly popular. Typical to such missions is the design of transfer…
The authors describe the general motion of radiation-pushed sails accelerated near the speed of light with directed energy propulsion. Practical applications of the model are also given, including the interstellar flyby mission to the Alpha…
We present a fast trajectory optimization algorithm for the soft capture of uncooperative tumbling space objects. Our algorithm generates safe, dynamically feasible, and minimum-fuel trajectories for a six-degree-of-freedom servicing…
This paper presents a trajectory optimization and control approach for the guidance of an orbital four-arm robot in extravehicular activities. The robot operates near the target spacecraft, enabling its arm's end-effectors to reach the…
The recent rise of CubeSat has revolutionized global space explorations, as it offers cost-effective solutions for low-orbit space applications (including climate monitoring, weather measurements, communications, and earth observation). A…
Space Cyber-Physical Systems (S-CPS) such as spacecraft and satellites strongly rely on the reliability of onboard computers to guarantee the success of their missions. Relying solely on radiation-hardened technologies is extremely…
Current space exploration programs call for the establishment of a permanent Human presence on the Moon. This paper considers periodic orbits of a shuttle between the Earth and the Moon. Such a shuttle will be needed to bring supplies to…
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…
A strategy for the analysis of active debris removal missions targeting multiple objects from a set of objects in near-circular orbit with similar inclination is presented. Algebraic techniques successfully reduce the orbital mechanics…
We present the detector performance and early science results from GRBAlpha, a 1U CubeSat mission, which is a technological pathfinder to a future constellation of nanosatellites monitoring gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). GRBAlpha was launched in…
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…
In this paper, a dynamic-programming approach to the coupled translational and rotational control of thruster-driven spacecraft is studied. To reduce the complexity of the problem, dynamic-programming-based optimal policies are calculated…