{"id":{"repo_id":"uiuc","oai_identifier":"oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/129874"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/uiuc/oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/129874","repository":{"repo_id":"uiuc","name":"University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign","base_url":"https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh"},"display":{"title":"Novel methods for high-fidelity low-thrust spacecraft trajectory optimization and mission design","abstract":"Submission original under an indefinite embargo labeled 'Open Access'. The submission was exported from vireo on 2025-10-20 without embargo terms","abstract_html":"Submission original under an indefinite embargo labeled 'Open Access'. The submission was exported from vireo on 2025-10-20 without embargo terms","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Pascarella, Alex"],"institution":"University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign","degree_name":"Ph.D.","degree_level":"Dissertation","degree_discipline":"Aerospace Engineering","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Woollands, Robyn","Prussing, John","Raginsky, Maxim","Wilson, Roby"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2025,"date_issued":"2025-07-16","date_published":"2025-07-16","updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:25:06Z","subjects":["Astrodynamics","Optimization","Optimal Control","Indirect Methods","Spacecraft Trajectories","Low-thrust","Homotopy"],"languages":["en","eng"],"rights":["Copyright 2025 Alex Pascarella"],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://hdl.handle.net/2142/129874","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Woollands, Robyn","Prussing, John","Raginsky, Maxim","Wilson, Roby"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Pascarella, Alex"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date","label":"Dc Date","values":["2025-07-16","2025-08"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["text"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Aerospace Engineering"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Dissertation"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Ph.D."]},{"key":"thesis:institution_name","label":"Thesis Institution Name","values":["University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Astrodynamics","Optimization","Optimal Control","Indirect Methods","Spacecraft Trajectories","Low-thrust","Homotopy"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language","label":"Dc Language","values":["en","eng"]},{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["Copyright 2025 Alex Pascarella"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://hdl.handle.net/2142/129874"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description","label":"Description","values":["Submission original under an indefinite embargo labeled 'Open Access'. The submission was exported from vireo on 2025-10-20 without embargo terms","The student, Alex Pascarella, accepted the attached license on 2025-07-14 at 11:25.","The student, Alex Pascarella, submitted this Dissertation for approval on 2025-07-14 at 11:35.","This Dissertation was approved for publication on 2025-07-16 at 21:06.","DSpace SAF Submission Ingestion Package generated from Vireo submission #22544 on 2025-10-20 at 16:57:54","Low-thrust propulsion has emerged as a key technology for spaceflight. It provides higher efficiency and substantial propellant savings over chemical propulsion, allowing for the deployment of heavier payloads to orbit for a given spacecraft mass. Although enabling, this technology presents challenges for mission design. For example, low-thrust engines must operate over much longer periods of time to perform a maneuver, and designing trajectories that minimize a given cost metric and meet the mission constraints requires solving optimal control problems. In the context of spacecraft trajectories, these problems are known to exhibit highly nonlinear behavior and extreme sensitivity to initial conditions, resulting in poor convergence properties that can make it impossible to obtain a solution, particularly when considering realistic mission scenarios. This dissertation includes the development of an optimization framework for designing optimal low-thrust trajectories in high-fidelity dynamical models. This optimization framework is based on the formalism of indirect methods, which introduces adjoints to the state variables to encode the conditions of optimality. The trajectory design challenges associated with low-thrust trajectory optimization are addressed through the development of advanced homotopy continuation techniques, which embed a complex problem within a parametrized family of simpler sub-problems. We employ state-of-the-art numerical tools, such as the advanced numerical integrators and automatic differentiation methods implemented in the Julia language. The methods developed and presented in this dissertation enable robust convergence and a considerable decrease in the computational effort required for obtaining the solution, thus overcoming the limitations of standard optimization techniques and allowing for the exploration of complex design spaces, rapid prototyping, and accurate trade studies. The methods are applied to the design and optimization of time-optimal and fuel-optimal Earth-centered trajectories, transfers to periodic and quasi-periodic orbit near Sun-Earth L2 point, and interplanetary transfers to Mars. These applications demonstrate the framework’s capability to handle complex dynamical regimes and stringent mission constraints. Overall, this work advances the state of the art in low-thrust trajectory optimization by providing a high-fidelity, computationally efficient, and extensible approach for the formulation and solution of realistic space mission design problems."]},{"key":"dc:format","label":"Dc Format","values":["application/pdf"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Novel methods for high-fidelity low-thrust spacecraft trajectory optimization and mission design"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Woollands, Robyn","Prussing, John","Raginsky, Maxim","Wilson, Roby"],"dc:creator":["Pascarella, Alex"],"dc:date":["2025-07-16","2025-08"],"dc:description":["Submission original under an indefinite embargo labeled 'Open Access'. The submission was exported from vireo on 2025-10-20 without embargo terms","The student, Alex Pascarella, accepted the attached license on 2025-07-14 at 11:25.","The student, Alex Pascarella, submitted this Dissertation for approval on 2025-07-14 at 11:35.","This Dissertation was approved for publication on 2025-07-16 at 21:06.","DSpace SAF Submission Ingestion Package generated from Vireo submission #22544 on 2025-10-20 at 16:57:54","Low-thrust propulsion has emerged as a key technology for spaceflight. It provides higher efficiency and substantial propellant savings over chemical propulsion, allowing for the deployment of heavier payloads to orbit for a given spacecraft mass. Although enabling, this technology presents challenges for mission design. For example, low-thrust engines must operate over much longer periods of time to perform a maneuver, and designing trajectories that minimize a given cost metric and meet the mission constraints requires solving optimal control problems. In the context of spacecraft trajectories, these problems are known to exhibit highly nonlinear behavior and extreme sensitivity to initial conditions, resulting in poor convergence properties that can make it impossible to obtain a solution, particularly when considering realistic mission scenarios. This dissertation includes the development of an optimization framework for designing optimal low-thrust trajectories in high-fidelity dynamical models. This optimization framework is based on the formalism of indirect methods, which introduces adjoints to the state variables to encode the conditions of optimality. The trajectory design challenges associated with low-thrust trajectory optimization are addressed through the development of advanced homotopy continuation techniques, which embed a complex problem within a parametrized family of simpler sub-problems. We employ state-of-the-art numerical tools, such as the advanced numerical integrators and automatic differentiation methods implemented in the Julia language. The methods developed and presented in this dissertation enable robust convergence and a considerable decrease in the computational effort required for obtaining the solution, thus overcoming the limitations of standard optimization techniques and allowing for the exploration of complex design spaces, rapid prototyping, and accurate trade studies. The methods are applied to the design and optimization of time-optimal and fuel-optimal Earth-centered trajectories, transfers to periodic and quasi-periodic orbit near Sun-Earth L2 point, and interplanetary transfers to Mars. These applications demonstrate the framework’s capability to handle complex dynamical regimes and stringent mission constraints. Overall, this work advances the state of the art in low-thrust trajectory optimization by providing a high-fidelity, computationally efficient, and extensible approach for the formulation and solution of realistic space mission design problems."],"dc:format":["application/pdf"],"dc:identifier":["https://hdl.handle.net/2142/129874"],"dc:language":["en","eng"],"dc:rights":["Copyright 2025 Alex Pascarella"],"dc:subject":["Astrodynamics","Optimization","Optimal Control","Indirect Methods","Spacecraft Trajectories","Low-thrust","Homotopy"],"dc:title":["Novel methods for high-fidelity low-thrust spacecraft trajectory optimization and mission design"],"dc:type":["text"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Aerospace Engineering"],"thesis:degree_level":["Dissertation"],"thesis:degree_name":["Ph.D."],"thesis:institution_name":["University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:25:06Z"}