Orbit Control for Satellites Using Suboptimal Quadratic Low Thrust

摘要

In this paper the problem of spacecraft orbit control with minimum fuel consumption is considered, in terms of simulating low thrust maneuvers for a spacecraft around the Earth. A numerical suboptimal solution is tried, when the direction of the thrust is assumed to be a quadratic form function of a reference angle that specify the position of the satellite in the orbit. The main goal is to develop a software that can calculate the control laws for real missions. The problem is numerically treated by using a direct search approach. The numerical solution of the problem in each iteration is reduced to one of nonlinear programming, which is then solved with the gradient projection method. The spacecraft is supposed to be in Keplerian motion controlled by the thrusts, that are assumed to be of fixed magnitude (either low or high) and operating in an on-off mode. Results of simulations are presented.