Optimization of separated spacecraft interferometer trajectories in the absence of a gravity well

摘要

Spacecraft trajectories for providing adequate image plane coverage for NASA's Deep Space 3 mission have been proposed. Due to the high cost of time and fuel in synthesizing images using DS3, this paper addresses time and fuel optimal trajectories. Using the point spread function of a densely- filled coverage as the basis for comparison, the locations of a given number of uv points are selected to best replicate this reference PSF. Subsequently, the minimum time and fuel in a 'stop and stare' mode are determined. Finally, these result are compared to several other trajectory options.