Analytical optimal solutions of impulsive out-of-plane rendezvous around elliptic orbits

International audienceThis paper focuses on the fixed-time minimum-fuel out-of-plane rendezvous between close elliptic orbits of an active spacecraft, with a passive target spacecraft, assuming a linear impulsive setting, and a Keplerian relative motion. It is shown that the out-of-plane Keplerian relative dynamics are simple enough to allow for an analytical solution of the problem reviewed. The different optimal solutions, for different durations of the rendezvous, are obtained via the analysis of the optimal conditions expressed in terms of the primer vector. A numerical example illustrates these results