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Optimal low‒thrust orbit transfers with eclipsing
Author(s) -
Betts John T.
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
optimal control applications and methods
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.458
H-Index - 44
eISSN - 1099-1514
pISSN - 0143-2087
DOI - 10.1002/oca.2111
Subject(s) - orbit (dynamics) , thrust , spacecraft , optimal control , computer science , series (stratigraphy) , aerospace engineering , orbital maneuver , scale (ratio) , nonlinear system , rendezvous , nonlinear programming , control theory (sociology) , mathematical optimization , algorithm , physics , mathematics , control (management) , geology , engineering , artificial intelligence , paleontology , quantum mechanics
Summary By choosing the optimal steering history of a spacecraft, it is possible to maximize the mass delivered from a park orbit to a mission orbit. A low‒thrust orbit transfer that models coasts when passing through the Earth's shadow can be formulated as a large‒scale optimal control problem with many distinct phases. This paper presents a technique that constructs an initial guess using a receding horizon algorithm. A series of large‒scale multiphase optimal control problems are then solved to refine the phase structure of the problem. The final optimal solution incorporates high fidelity physics and mesh refinement techniques within a large sparse nonlinear programming approach.