Global Fuel Optimization for Constrained Spacecraft Formation Rotations
Elwin de Weerdt, Qi Chu, Jan Albert Mulder · 2009
Spacecraft formation flying is the new trend in space missions. Increased flexibility, lower cost, enhanced capabilities and fail-safe concepts are the main drivers of spacecraft formations. One important aspect of operating formations of spacecraft is trajectory planning. In this paper interval analysis is applied to find the set of global optimal trajectories such that the consumed fuel is minimal and/or equalized over the spacecraft in the formation. Moreover, interval analysis is applied to find the minimal time in which the rotation can be performed. Interval analysis implements interval arithmetic to guarantee that the global optimum is found and can easily incorporate inequality and equality constraints. As an initial validation test, the case of sequential constrained spacecraft formation rotations in free space is chosen. The proposed method is shown to solve the problem rigorously even in the case of acceleration constraints and fuel constraints. Moreover, application of the proposed method is not limited to the test case. Future work will consider unconstrained rotations and planet orbiting spacecraft formation.