This paper considers the problem of rotating a formation of spacecraft from one orientation to another, using an optimal amount of fuel. The formation is constrained to have the same shape at the beginning and end of a maneuver. However, the shape is unconstrained throughout the maneuver. This implies that to optimize fuel, each spacecraft travels in a straight line, from its beginning to end position. A cost function, motivated by the entropy function from information theory, is used to trade off fuel minimization verses equalizing the fuel across the constellation to avoid fuel starvation.


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    Title :

    Fuel Optimization for Unconstrained Rotation of Spacecraft Formations


    Additional title:

    J of Astronaut Sci


    Contributors:

    Published in:

    Publication date :

    1999-09-01


    Size :

    15 pages




    Type of media :

    Article (Journal)


    Type of material :

    Electronic Resource


    Language :

    English





    Fuel Optimization for Unconstrained Rotation of Spacecraft Formations

    Beard, Randal W. / Hadaegh, Fred Y. | Online Contents | 1999


    Fuel Optimization for Constrained Rotation of Spacecraft Formations

    Randal W. Beard / Timothy W. McLain / Fred Y. Hadaegh | AIAA | 2000



    Fuel Optimiation for Constrained Rotation of Spacecraft Formations

    McLain, T. / Beard, R. / Hadaegh, F. | NTRS | 1999