Trajectory planning for spacecraft rendezvous with on/off thrusters

Abstract: In a previous work, the authors developed a trajectory planning algorithm for spacecraft rendezvous which computed optimal Pulse-Width Modulated (PWM) control signals, assuming that the target was moving in a circular Keplerian orbit. In this paper we extend the algorithm to the case of an elliptical target orbit with arbitrary eccentricity. Since the orbit is elliptical, the linear time-varying Tschauner-Hempel model is used, whose exact solution is possible by using true (or eccentric) anomaly instead of time (which is directly related to both via Kepler’s equation). Unlike in the circular case, computing the PWM solution itself requires numerical integration. However, explicit linearization around the computed solution turns out to be possible and is exploited for rapidly improving the solution using linear programming (LP) techniques. The algorithm is initialized by solving the impulsive problem first; the impulses are converted to PWM signals, which are used as an initial guess. Using the explicit linearization and LP, the solution is refined until a (possibly local) optimal value is reached. The efficacy of the method is shown in a simulation study where it is compared to the impulsive-only approach