Spaceborne interferometry promises to greatly expand our knowledge of astronomy and astrophysics, and open the doors to many new discoveries. The purpose of this study is to investigate optimal resource management techniques for separated space-craft interferometers to successfully synthesize images. Assuming optimal imaging configurations that satisfy astronomical requirements have been selected, a two-step approach is taken to satisfy these requirements: (1) develop a framework to man-age control effort among different satellites during observation and retargeting of the spacecraft formations, to thereby maximize the number of observations that can be taken with a given amount of consumables, and (2) determine computationally efficient control techniques to minimize control effort while meeting image synthesis metrics. First, issues relating to planning optimal trajectories that trade imaging metrics for spacecraft design metrics such as mission length and spacecraft mass are addressed. The determination of optimal spacecraft locations or trajectories for image acquisition is studied to satisfy astronomical constraints. These positioning requirements lead to the computation of trajectories for the retargeting of formation flying interferometers to capture images of a new astronomical target. Second, the trajectories planned under this approach are used in the formulation of a tracking control problem for spaceborne interferometric apertures.
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