Shape-Based Approach to Low-Thrust Rendezvous Trajectory Design

Abstract

an initial guess satisfying the equation of motion constraints and the terminal boundary conditions. A shape-based methodisderivedherethatiscapableofdeterminingsuchtrajectoriesforbothtime-freeandtime-fixedcases.When combined with a genetic algorithm, it is possible to find solutions by adjusting the free parameters of the problem within a few percent of optimal solutions found with a very exact optimizer. The method is intended for the rendezvous case but, with small modifications, it is able to solve for the less constrained cases of interception, orbit transfer, and escape.