This paper presents the results of a study that has been carried out by Thales Alenia Space (TAS) in cooperation with the French Space Agency (CNES). The aim of this study was to develop a tool to design optimal trajectories for debris removal missions based on the use of a low-thrust propulsion spacecraft. Since the number of possible combinations between LEO debris is huge, it has been necessary to develop a tool that can evaluate in a fast, accurate, and robust way the cost of a low-thrust transfer between two LEO orbits, including angular rendezvous with the target debris and the effect of the J2 perturbation. This paper presents the tool that has been developed by TAS. It is based on an existing software called T3D, that uses an indirect approach based on Pontyagrin's Maximum Principle. T3D has been largely validated before through several challenging test cases. Nevertheless, several modifications have been introduced in order to meet the current needs and improve the capabilities of the tool.
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