The heliocentric transfer of a solar sail-based spacecraft is usually studied from an optimal perspective by looking for the control law that minimizes the total flight time. The optimal control problem can be solved either with an indirect approach, whose solution is dicult to obtain due to its sensitivity to an initial guess of the costates, or with a direct method, which is simpler to implement, but requires a good estimate of a feasible trajectory. This work presents a procedure to generate an approximate optimal trajectory through a finite Fourier series. The minimum time problem is solved using a nonlinear programming solver, in which the optimization parameters are the coeffcients of the Fourier series and the positions of the spacecraft along the initial and target orbits. Suitable constraints are imposed on the direction and magnitude of the sail propulsive acceleration vector in order to obtain feasible solutions. A comparison with the results from an indirect approach shows that the proposed method provides a good approximation of the optimal trajectory with a low computational effort.

Optimal Solar Sail Trajectory Approximation with Finite Fourier Series

Caruso A
Primo
Conceptualization
;
Mengali G
Secondo
Validation
;
Quarta A
Ultimo
Writing – Original Draft Preparation
2019-01-01

Abstract

The heliocentric transfer of a solar sail-based spacecraft is usually studied from an optimal perspective by looking for the control law that minimizes the total flight time. The optimal control problem can be solved either with an indirect approach, whose solution is dicult to obtain due to its sensitivity to an initial guess of the costates, or with a direct method, which is simpler to implement, but requires a good estimate of a feasible trajectory. This work presents a procedure to generate an approximate optimal trajectory through a finite Fourier series. The minimum time problem is solved using a nonlinear programming solver, in which the optimization parameters are the coeffcients of the Fourier series and the positions of the spacecraft along the initial and target orbits. Suitable constraints are imposed on the direction and magnitude of the sail propulsive acceleration vector in order to obtain feasible solutions. A comparison with the results from an indirect approach shows that the proposed method provides a good approximation of the optimal trajectory with a low computational effort.
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11568/992674
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