The formation reconfiguration of multiple free-flying spacecraft is posed as an optimization problem involving minimum fuel expenditure. A method for obtaining simple solutions to this problem is proposed. The basic idea is to break up the formation reconfiguration process into a sequence of simple maneuvers involving a small number of spacecraft at a time. Moreover, the spacecraft move along straightline paths in the three-dimensional space. Thus, the minimum-fuel reconfiguration problem can be reduced to an optimization problem involving permutation groups. The proposed approach requires seeking fuel minimization over the set of all spacecraft permutation cycles of lengths ≥2. Examples are given to illustrate the application of the proposed method.


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    Title :

    Minimum-Fuel Formation Reconfiguration of Multiple Free-Flying Spacecraft


    Additional title:

    J of Astronaut Sci


    Contributors:

    Published in:

    Publication date :

    1999-03-01


    Size :

    26 pages




    Type of media :

    Article (Journal)


    Type of material :

    Electronic Resource


    Language :

    English