Robust Minimum-Fuel Orbit Transfers Taking into Account Thruster Under-Performance

Francesco Simeoni () and Lorenzo Casalino ()
Additional contact information
Francesco Simeoni: Thales Alenia Space, Strada Antica di Collegno
Lorenzo Casalino: Politecnico Torino, Corso Duca degli Abruzzi

A chapter in New Trends and Challenges in Optimization Theory Applied to Space Engineering, 2025, pp 145-157 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract In the life of a spacecraft, the Launch and Early Operational Phase (LEOP) is one of the most critical, because the knowledge of the behavior of the SpaceCraft (S/C) platform is still uncertain. This is in particular true for the propulsive maneuvers performed during the first phases of a mission, when the performance of the spacecraft and thrusters is still unknown. The maneuvers that modify the trajectory can be carefully planned on ground and executed by the spacecraft under operator supervision or can autonomously be computed by the on-board software. In both cases the maneuvers are traditionally computed and optimized considering specific nominal values for the spacecraft performance (nominal case), while the robustness of the designed trajectory is tested against one or more identified worst-case scenarios or Monte-Carlo simulations. The trajectory design improving the robustness of the obtained solution is considered an interesting topic of discussion (Oguri and McMahon, Journal of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics. 45(1):84–102, 2022; Ozaki et al., Journal of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics. 43(4), 2020; Di Carlo et al., Robust optimization of low-thrust interplanetary transfers using evidence theory. 29th AAS/AIAA Space Flight Mechanics Meeting, Vol. 168: pp. 339–358, n.d.; Zavoli et al. Journal of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics. 44(8): 1440–1453, 2021). The problem proposed for discussion is how to find a robust control law that takes into account dramatic thruster underperformance. The insertion of a spacecraft in a highly elliptic orbit with multiple apogee burns is considered as an example and the effect of non-nominal thrust in the first apogee maneuver. The approach is extended to the problem of cooperative deployment of two satellites constellation. An indirect optimization method is proposed in order to find a robust optimal control law that guarantees performance even in such an event (Simeoni, Cooperative deployment of satellite formation into highly elliptic orbit. PhD Thesis, 2013).

Keywords: Robust optimization; Indirect optimization; Highly elliptic orbit; Thruster underperformance; MSC: 34H05; 93C73; 49Mxx (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:spochp:978-3-031-81253-8_11

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/9783031812538

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-81253-8_11

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Springer Optimization and Its Applications from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().