What is it about?
The spacecraft trajectory optimization determines a state profile and control inputs satisfying given constraints while minimizing a certain cost. A fuel minimization problem has been one of the most challenging problems. This work addresses a mathematical trick for relaxing the difficulty.
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Why is it important?
The notorious singularity associated with the zero-magnitude control input in the fuel minimization problem is removed by merging the regularization theory in the field of Celestial Mechanics into the trajectory optimization in Astrodynamics. This means one can use a widely adopted gradient-based algorithm to compute fuel-optimal trajectories without suffering from the singularity.
Perspectives
This paper further enhances the robust convergence property of the gradient-based direct method.
Kenta Oshima
Hiroshima Kogyo Daigaku
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Regularizing fuel-optimal multi-impulse trajectories, Astrodynamics, February 2024, Tsinghua University Press,
DOI: 10.1007/s42064-023-0176-2.
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