This paper presents analytic solutions for three-impulse maneuver sequences that perform safety ellipse resizing and phasing. Safety ellipses are relative motion trajectories that do not require thrusting to ensure a high probability of short-term collision avoidance. Primer vector theory, validated with numerical analysis, is used to derive analytic expressions that relate optimality to properties of the initial and final safety ellipses. This analysis shows that the maneuver sequences are optimal for a range of resizing and phasing scenarios. An analysis is also performed on the passive safety of transfer trajectories that result from incomplete maneuver sequences. It is shown that only phasing scenarios that call for an extreme phase angle change result in potentially unsafe transfer trajectories.
Analytic Impulsive Maneuver Sequences for Nominal Safety Ellipse Reconfigurations
Journal of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics ; 43 , 10 ; 1837-1853
2020-07-29
17 pages
Article (Journal)
Electronic Resource
English
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