Solving Coplanar Power-Limited Orbit Transfer Problem by Primer Vector Approximation Method

The coplanar orbit transfer problem has been an important topic in astrodynamicssince the beginning of the space era. Though many approximate solutions forpower-limited orbit transfer problem have been developed, most of them rely on simplificationsof the dynamics of the problem. This paper proposes a new approximationmethod called primer vector approximation method to solve the classic power-limitedorbit transfer problem. This method makes no simplification on the dynamics, butinstead approximates the optimal primer-vector function. With this method, this paperderives two approximate solutions for the power-limited orbit transfer problem.Numerical tests show the robustness and accuracy of the approximations