An Atlas of Optimal Low-Thrust Rephasing Solutions in Circular Orbit

TL;DR

This paper develops an atlas of optimal low-thrust rephasing solutions in circular orbit, simplifying the problem with linearized equations, and providing analytical and numerical solutions for efficient mission planning.

Contribution

It introduces a reduced parameter approach and analytical solutions for low-thrust rephasing, enhancing initial guess generation and mission design efficiency.

Findings

Key parameters are identified for time and propellant optimality.

Curve maps and piecewise functions effectively approximate solution relationships.

Proposed solutions serve as good initial guesses for nonlinear problem solving.

Abstract

In this paper, the time- and propellant-optimal low-thrust rephasing problems in circular orbit are studied to depict their solution spaces in an atlas. The number of key parameters that settle the rephasing problems is reduced by developing a set of linearized equations of motion based on the Sundman transformation and by formulating two reduced shooting functions using the minimum principle and symmetry properties. Only one key parameter is identified for the time-optimal problem, while two key parameters are obtained for the propellant-optimal one. Numerical investigation of the relationships between these parameters and shooting variables reveals that they can be depicted by some curve (or contour) maps and approximated by piecewise functions (or linear interpolations). For the relatively short- or long-term rephasing cases, some analytical time- and propellant-optimal solutions are proposed and consistent with the numerical solutions. Numerical results demonstrate that the proposed solutions can provide good initial guesses to solve the low-thrust rephasing problems with nonlinear dynamics. Moreover, the approximations of the performance indexes can be used in the preliminary mission design.