Orbital transfer trajectory optimization

Recent developments in astronautical engineering have led to the adoption of low thrust rocket engines for spacecraft. Optimizing the orbital transfers for low thrust engines is significantly more complicated than optimizing transfers for impulsive engines because a continuous control law must be found and long integrations are necessary to determine whether the control law works or not. Previous work on optimizing low thrust orbital transfers has led to the development of control laws for continuous thrusting including the effects of oblateness, multiple attracting bodies, eclipses, and solar cell degradation. The current work adds to this by developing control laws for optimal coasting and for variable specific impulse at constant power. The Hamiltonian method is used to develop the optimal control laws and physical interpretations are given to each term in the Hamiltonian. Application of the optimal coasting control law to transfers from LEO to GEO indicate that small amounts of coasting can significantly reduce the fuel needed for a transfer.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2004

Author dc:creator

• Whiting, James K., 1980-

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Manuel Martinez-Sanchez.

• Aeronautics and Astronautics.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/17835

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/17835