Optimum, Suboptimal and Solar Sailing Orbital Maneuvers for a Spacecraft Orbiting the Earth

Abstract

The present research performs numerical studies to search for the best maneuvers, from the point of view of minimum time, to make adjustments in the semi-major axis, eccentricity and inclination of a spacecraft traveling around the Earth. For those maneuvers, low thrust propulsion is used under optimal and sub-optimal assumptions, to verify the main differences in terms of transfer time. In addition, solar sail dynamics is used. The spacecraft is assumed to have a propulsion with a fixed magnitude and that the control is based on choosing the direction of the propulsion. It is found that optimal control gives the minimum transfer time, while sub-optimal control restricted the control to follow a predescribed function, which is assumed to be a constant or linear function in time. Finally, solar sails present themselves as an option where fuel is a critical factor, given their much longer maneuver duration, but with a zero fuel consumption. The numerical-analytical modeling of optimization methods developed in this study can break any type of symmetry in the solutions. In turn, they can increase their energetic efficiency. The present research compares those results in detail, in particular looking at the transfer time in all cases studied.