Low-thrust interplanetary space missions are highly complex and there can be many locally optimal solutions. While several techniques exist to search for globally optimal solutions to low-thrust trajectory design problems, they are typically limited to unconstrained trajectories. The operational design community in turn has largely avoided using such techniques and has primarily focused on accurate constrained local optimization combined with grid searches and intuitive design processes at the expense of efficient exploration of the global design space. This work is an attempt to bridge the gap between the global optimization and operational design communities by presenting a mathematical framework for global optimization of low-thrust trajectories subject to complex constraints including the targeting of planetary landing sites, a solar range constraint to simplify the thermal design of the spacecraft, and a real-world multi-thruster electric propulsion system that must switch thrusters on and off as available power changes over the course of a mission.
Global Optimization of Low-Thrust Interplanetary Trajectories Subject to Operational Constraints
AAS&AIAA Space Flight Mechanics Meeting ; 2016 ; Napa Valley, CA, United States
2016-02-14
Conference paper
No indication
English
Method of continuation for optimization of interplanetary low-thrust trajectories
Springer Verlag | 2012
|